^-S3i'-^>X  - 


To  the 
Pacific  ^  Mex 


A.K.McClure 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


\v 


c^     l-n  ^   t^£>  I 


TO  THE  PACIFIC  ^  MEXICO 


To  the 
Pacific  &^  Mexico 

BY 

A.  K.  McCLURE,   LL.D. 

ILLUSTRATED 


Philadelphia  &   London 

J.  B.  Lippincott   Company 

I  9  o  I 


Copyright,  igoi 

BY 

J.  B.  LippiNcoTT  Company 


PRINTED    BV    J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY,  PHILADELPHIA,   U.  8.  A. 


o 


UiL-l 


F 

M  Bet 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


A.   K.   McClure  ....  Frontispiece 

The  Mormon  Tabernacle 

The  Golden  Gate,  San  Francisco 

The  Great  Cathedral,   City  of  Mexico 

Chapultepec — Hall  of  the  Montezumas 

The  Guadalupe  Cathedral  . 

Railroad  ascending  Orizaba  Mountains 


PAGE 

24 
43 
63 
94 
113 
147 


PREFACE 

These  letters  are  given  to  the  public 
without  any  special  claim  to  literary  merit, 
as  they  were  written  for  the  Philadelphia 
Times  amidst  the  exactions  of  a  journey 
across  the  continent  to  the  Pacific  and 
thence  to  the  City  of  Mexico,  with  but 
little  time  for  careful  preparation. 

A  party,  consisting  of  Hon.  William  H. 
Armstrong  of  Philadelphia,  Charles  I. 
DuPont  of  Delaware,  H.  L.  Holden,  Jr., 
of  Easton,  Maryland,  Mrs.  Hannah  E.  Por- 
ter and  Miss  Annette  A.  Porter  of  Wil- 
mington, and  Miss  Katharine  H.  Spencer 
and  Miss  Clifford  Newbold  of  Philadel- 
phia, made  the  journey  with  the  author 
across  the  continent  to  San  Francisco, 
thence  by  El  Paso  to  the  City  of  Mexico, 
thence  home  by  Eagle  Pass,  San  Antonio, 
and  New  Orleans. 

7 


PREFACE 


The  interesting  scenery  of  our  Western 

mountains    and   on   the   Pacific,    and    the 

vastly  more  interesting   historical   lessons 

in  Mexico,  inspired  the  author  to  present 

in  these  letters  the  convictions  which  the 

impressive  studies  make  for  the  observant 

traveller.    They  are  given  without  revision, 

thus  presenting  to  the  public  the  varied 

impressions  made  at  different  stages  of  a  i 

hasty    journey    of    nearly    ten    thousand 

miles. 

A.  K.  M. 

Philadelphia,  April,  1901. 


TO   THE 
PACIFIC   &f  MEXICO 


THE  MORMONS  REVISITED 

Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  January  22,  1901. 
Every  intelligent  and  public-spirited 
citizen  of  the  United  States  should  traverse 
his  country  at  least  once  in  every  decade, 
or  he  must  fall  behind  complete  knowledge 
and  just  appreciation  of  the  grandeur  and 
growth  of  the  republic.  I  first  saw  the  far 
West  thirty-four  years  ago,  when  Denver 
was  little  more  than  a  rude  mining-camp 
with  hardly  a  comfortable  home-building 
within  it.  Now  it  Ls  a  great  city  with 
many  squares  of  elegant  and  substantial 
buildings.    It  was  then  a  straggling  village 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


of  hastily  constructed  shanties,  and  no  one 
dreamed  that  when  half  a  generation  had 
passed  it  would  be  the  centre  of  numerous 
railroads,  with  colleges  and  churches,  the 
pride  of  an  intelligent,  prosperous,  and 
most  progressive  people. 

I  remember  Governor  Evans  and  Dr. 
Cass  driving  me  around  the  suburbs  of  the 
shanties  which  they  called  the  city,  and 
pointing  out  to  me  a  very  desirable  quarter- 
section  of  land  that  I  should  take  up  at 
government  prices.  I  declined  the  venture, 
as  I  was  not  in  a  speculative  mood,  and 
the  new  country  seemed  to  promise  little 
more  than  gratification  to  those  who  loved 
adventure ;  but  when  I  was  in  the  same 
city  twenty  years  later.  Dr.  Cass  drove  me 
through  the  streets  of  the  same  quarter- 
section,  pointed  out  the  beautiful  Capitol 
building  erected  upon  it,  and  took  special 
pride    in    informing   me   that    the   entire 


10 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

quarter-section  was  then  worth  five  thou- 
sand dollars  or  more  per  acre. 

I  well  remember  that  the  one  thing  that 
seemed  to  concern  the  people  of  Colorado 
and  Utah  a  generation  ago  was  the  fact 
that  there  was  not  a  known  coal-mine  be- 
tween Missouri  and  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
The  Union  Pacific  Railroad  had  then  ex- 
tended only  about  two  hundred  miles  west 
from  Missouri  to  the  North  Platte,  and  its 
coming  to  the  Rocky  Mountain  region  was 
looked  for  with  intense  interest,  but  there 
was  not  a  pound  of  coal  on  its  entire 
line  to  make  steam  for  its  locomotives. 
Now  Colorado  alone  could  supply  the 
whole  of  the  United  States  with  coal  and 
have  plenty  to  spare, — not  only  bituminous 
or  soft  coal,  but  anthracite  coal,  although 
the  anthracite  coal  is  not  equal  in  quality 
to  that  of  Pennsylvania.  Colorado  people 
Bay  it   is   not   as   ripe,  but   it  is  genuine 


11 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

anthracite,  and  it  is  shipped  eastward  hun- 
dreds of  miles  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Schuylkill  and  Lehigh  coal  that  has  always 
been  used  in  small  quantities  for  particular 
purposes.  There  was  pointed  out  to  me, 
by  a  very  intelligent  business  man,  as  we 
were  passing  through  Colorado,  a  single 
spur  of  one  of  the  many  broken  ridges  of 
the  Rockies  that  alone  has  in  it  billions  of 
tons  of  coal,  and  which  is  quite  accessible. 
It  was  then  thought  next  to  impossible 
to  make  a  transcontinental  railroad  ever 
pay,  and  the  very  liberal  subsidy  given  by 
the  government  to  the  Union  Pacific  and 
to  the  Central  Pacific  was  generally  con- 
sidered by  all  as  a  gift,  as  it  never  could 
be  repaid.  To-day  there  are  five  different 
railroads  traversing  the  Kocky  Mountains 
from  the  eastern  base  to  the  Pacific.  They 
are  the  Northern  Pacific,  Great  Northern, 
Union  Pacific,  Sante  Fe  line,  and  Southern 

12 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Pacific,  and  all  are  to-day  on  a  reasonably 
sound  basis,  after  the  government  lias  been 
practically  repaid  its  investment  in  these 
great  enterprises. 

Upon  Denver,  transformed  in  a  single 
score  of  years  from  a  rude  mining-camp 
into  a  great  city  with  every  quality  of 
substance,  I  looked  yesterday  for  the  first 
time  in  twelve  years,  and  I  found  it  out- 
stripping all  Eastern  cities,  and  to  be  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  heartsome  cities 
of  the  continent.  It  has  a  great  State 
around  it,  and  its  wealth  is  not  only 
steadily  increasing,  but  the  momentum  of 
advancement  increases  with  every  year. 
It  was  only  a  few  years  ago  that  its  people 
believed  that  its  wealth  was  in  silver,  and 
that  the  production  of  gold  was  a  mere 
secondary  interest.  Like  all  people  who 
have  been  pioneers  in  ])uilding  up  great 
States,  they  believed  only  in  Colorado,  and 

13 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

thought  or  cared  for  little  else.  They 
voted  next  to  unanimously  for  free  silver 
against  an  overwhelming  Republican  con- 
viction four  years  ago,  but  in  the  mean 
time  the  product  of  gold  has  outstripped 
that  of  silver,  and  the  many  other  great 
interests  of  the  State  have  overshadowed 
the  silver  issue,  making  the  State  fairly 
debatable  in  the  last  contest  and  leaving 
the  silver  battle  only  a  memory. 

Not  only  do  two  trunk-lines  cross  the 
Kockies  and  traverse  the  State,  but  the 
little  narrow-gauge  railroad  climbs  the 
steep  cliffs  around  the  sharp  curves  of 
the  confused  mountain  spurs  into  every 
centre  of  industry,  and  to-day  no  one  can 
fairly  measure  the  future  wealth  of  Colo- 
rado. Since  I  last  visited  the  State,  only 
a  dozen  years  ago,  oil  has  been  discovered 
and  there  has  been  built  up  an  immense 
industry  around  Florence,  from  which  you 

14 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

can  see  a  forest  of  oil-derricks  aud  every 
sign  of  commerce  in  oil.  In  the  ricli  little 
valleys  which  lie  between  the  mountain 
spurs  prosperous  communities  are  growing 
up.  The  only  sign  of  the  old  Mexican 
that  is  to  be  seen  in  the  State  is  in  Pueblo, 
where  the  slums  are  peopled  by  those  who 
have  come  down  from  Spanish  and  Mexi- 
can rule  and  who  learn  nothing  and  forget 
nothing.  They  live  in  extreme  poverty  in 
little  adobe  huts,  and  are  clustered  together 
chiefly  on  one  of  the  suburban  hills  lying 
about  the  city. 

The  imperial  progress  of  America  that  I 
saw  so  beautifully  and  impressively  referred 
to  by  the  leading  journal  of  Austria  only 
a  few  days  ago,  has  stamped  its  impress 
so  clearly  upon  the  Western  part  of  our 
continent  that  it  becomes  bewildering  to 
attempt  to  measure  the  future  achievements 
of  our  peojile. 

15 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

I  doubt  whether  there  is  anywhere  in 
any  other  country  of  the  world  a  journey 
so  grandly  beautiful  as  that  of  crossing  the 
Rocky  Mountains  by  the  Grand  Canon  on 
the  Santa  Fe  Railroad.  From  Pueblo  un- 
til the  summit  of  the  mountain  is  reached 
the  railroad  follows  the  Arkansas  River, 
which  has  hewn  its  way  through  the  con- 
fusion of  rocky  cliffs  to  reach  an  outlet 
to  the  Eastern  sea,  and  in  the  Grand 
Canon  it  has  worked  out  its  channel,  in 
some  places  leaving  almost  perpendicular 
cliffs  hundreds  of  feet  in  height  on  every 
side,  and  in  one  place  an  almost  perpen- 
dicular wall  towering  eighteen  hundred 
feet  above  the  angry  stream  that  rushes 
through  the  canon.  From  Canon  City  to 
Salida,  which  is  a  two  hours'  journey, 
the  scenery  is  the  most  wild  and  weird 
that  I  ever  have  witnessed.  For  miles 
at   a   time,    although    early   in   the   after- 

16 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

noon,  the  only  perceptible  knowledge  of 
the  shining  of  the  sun  was  given  as  here 
and  there  you  could  see  from  the  bottom  of 
the  canon  the  sunlight  kissing  the  tops  of 
the  distant  cliffs.  The  grade  is  very  heavy, 
making  the  ascent  slow,  and  hard  by  the 
road-bed  the  dashing  and  whirling  waters 
of  the  little  river  descend  without  a  placid 
pool  from  its  fountain,  on  the  summit  of 
the  range,  until  it  strikes  the  plain  west 
of  Pueblo.  We  reach  the  altitude  of  ten 
thousand  two  hundred  and  forty  feet,  but, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  are  enclosed 
and  cultivated  ranches  almost  to  the  very 
summit  of  the  mountain,  while  below  the 
canon,  at  an  elevation  of  from  six  thousand 
to  seven  thousand  feet,  most  luxuriant 
orchards  are  to  be  seen  on  every  side, 
and  although  in  midwinter,  cattle  and 
horses  were  grazing  from  the  base  to  the 
summit  of  the  rocky  range.     What  must 

•2  17 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   JVIEXICO 

be  the  future  growth  and  wealth  of  such 
a  country  ? 

This  morning  found  us  again  in  the 
land  of  the  Saints,  the  beautiful  valley  of 
Utah.  When  I  first  saw  it,  thirty-four 
years  ago,  the  Mormon  Church  and  its 
power  were  absolutely  supreme  within  its 
entire  borders.  It  was  governed  by  Brig- 
ham  Young,  with  whom  I  had  frequent 
intercourse  and  was  much  entertained  as 
well  as  instructed  by  his  frank  presenta- 
tion of  the  industrial  organization  of  the 
Mormon  hierarchy.  The  Mormons  settled 
here  because  they  had  been  driven  from 
Pennsylvania  to  Ohio,  and  from  Ohio  to 
Illinois,  where  their  temple  was  destroyed 
by  a  mob  and  Prophet  Smith  murdered. 
They  then  crossed  the  trackless  plains  west 
of  the  Missouri,  and  traversed  the  five 
hundred  miles  of  roadless  mountains, 
bringing  with  them  their  stock,  their  im- 

18 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

plements,  and  all  things  necessary  to  found 
a  new  community,  as  they  believed,  entirely 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  civilization  that 
had  antagonized  them.  They  settled  in 
Utah  after  having  thoroughly  prospected 
the  mountain  regions,  not  only  because  it 
was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  fruitful 
valleys  of  the  continent,  but  because  it  was 
under  the  government  of  Mexico  that  was 
certain  never  to  disturb  them ;  but  only 
two  years  after  they  had  first  reared  their 
homes  here  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hi- 
dalgo brought  them  back  within  the  hated 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States.  They 
were,  however,  more  than  a  thousand  miles 
beyond  the  outer  verge  of  civilization, 
with  impassable  mountains  and  hostile 
savages  to  retard  advancement  of  empire 
towards  the  setting  sun.  Between  them 
and  the  Missouri  were  only  unpeopled 
plains,  once  described  in  our  old  geogra- 

10 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

pliies  as  the  "  Great  American  Desert," 
and  mountains  extending  over  hundreds 
of  miles  regarded  as  impassable  except  to 
the  hardiest  of  adventurers.  West  of  them 
were  the  even  more  forbidding  cliffs  of  the 
Sierra  Nevadas,  peopled  to  the  Pacific  sloj^e 
by  semi-barbarians.  It  was  not  unreason- 
able for  Brigham  Young,  one  of  the  shrewd- 
est and  ablest  administrators  of  his  time, 
and  thorough  master  of  the  j)eople  who 
were  under  his  rule  because  he  thoroughly 
understood  them,  to  assume  that  the  Mor- 
mon people  were  entirely  safe  for  genera- 
tions against  the  surges  of  the  civilization 
they. so  much  dreaded.  They  saw  their 
beautiful  and  bountiful  valley  walled  in 
by  great  mountain  cliffs,  with  their  eternal 
caps  of  snow,  and  with  nothing,  as  they 
believed,  to  invite  the  incursions  of  their 
foes. 

I  studied  the  Mormon  problem  in  this 

20 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

city  ill  1867  for  some  weeks,  and  luid  very 
free  and  hospitable  intercourse  with  the 
leaders  of  the  Mormon  faith.  Aside  from 
the  religious  teachings  of  the  church,  it 
was  certainly  the  most  complete  and  benefi- 
cent industrial  organization  that  has  ever 
been  made  in  this  or  any  other  country. 
Brigham  A^oung  was  hard  to  answer  when 
he  challenged  me  to  traverse  his  entire 
community,  extending  for  one  hundred 
miles  north  and  south,  and  find  a  single 
man  begging  bread  or  a  woman  in  open 
shame.  The  church  not  only  provided  for 
the  spiritual  needs  of  the  people  according 
to  its  own  faith  and  maintained  polygamy 
as  a  religious  duty,  but  it  made  the  most 
complete  provision  for  all  of  their  temporal 
wants.  If  bad  seasons  destroyed  the  crops, 
the  storehouse  of  the  church  fed  those  who 
were  breadless;  if  sickness  came,  the  bishop 

ministered  to  them  ;  and  wlien  death  came, 

21 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

the  last  offices  were  performed  for  all  by 
the  church,  and  the  widowed  and  fatherless 
cared  for.  It  was  even  then  a  completely  in- 
dependent community.  Itj^roduced  every- 
thing its  people  consumed,  and  the  products 
of  the  entire  Territory  were  regulated  by 
orders  from  the  church.  When  there  was 
an  excess  of  products,  there  being  no  out- 
side market,  the  church  became  the  pur- 
chaser, thus  assuring  a  certain  reward  to 
the  husbandman.  Education  and  music 
were  held  to  be  religious  duties  in  every 
home.  Dances  were  held  weekly  in  every 
settlement  under  the  care  of  the  bishop, 
and  a  large  theatre  had  been  erected  in  the 
city  and  gave  all  the  attractive  plays  which 
traversed  the  continent.  They  even  made 
their  own  money,  issuing  their  bank-notes 
in  utter  contempt  of  the  national  banking 
law,  and  in  conviction  they  were  generally 
hostile  to  the  government. 

22 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Finally  the  sound  of  the  iron  horse  was 
heard  in  the  canons  and  around  the  cliffs 
of  the  Rockies,  and  that  brought  civiliza- 
tion suddenly  in  conflict  with  Mormonism. 
The  first  railway  train  that  entered  Salt 
Lake  City  from  the  East  dated  the  decline 
and  fall  of  Mormon  supremacy  and  Mormon 
religion  so  far  as  it  was  in  conflict  with  the 
laws  of  the  nation,  and  any  other  man  than 
Brigham  Youno;  would  have  been  over- 
whelmed  at  the  threshold  of  the  struggle. 
It  was  his  cunning  and  masterful  diplomacy 
that  saved  the  power  of  the  Mormon  Church 
from  early  destruction,  but  he  finally  gave 
up  the  unequal  battle  and  found  repose 
in  death.  The  dying  throes  of  polygamy 
and  Mormon  power  in  Utah  need  not  now 
be  detailed,  they  are  familiar  to  all ;  but 
no  one  can  look  over  this  beautiful  and 
fruitful  valley  without  feeling  that  the 
Mormons,  the  earliest  of  all  the  pioneers  in 

23 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

the  mountain  valleys,  laid  the  foundation 
for  a  State  that  must  one  day  be  accepted 
as  among  the  most  attractive  and  prosperous 
of  any  of  the  States  of  the  Union. 

The  Mormons  are  still  a  large  majority 
of  the  people  in  Utah  and  the  possessors 
of  most  of  its  wealth,  but  they  have  become 
so  intermingled  with  the  civilization  of  the 
East  in  commerce,  industry,  finance,  and 
trade  that  you  see  no  sign  of  distinctive 
Mormonism  in  the  community.  Their 
beautiful  and  unique  Temple,  that  required 
forty  years  to  build,  and  the  immense 
turtle-roofed  Tabernacle  with  the  Assembly 
Hall  are  in  one  block  and  are  maintained 
in  all  their  beauty.  The  Mormon  altar 
has  its  crowds  of  worshij^pers  in  the  public 
services  accessible  to  all,  but  the  Temple  is 
inexorably  closed  against  the  tread  of  the 
Gentile.  When  I  was  here  twelve  years 
ago  it  had  not  yet  been  comj^leted  or  dedi- 

24 


tti 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

cated,  aud  I  was  permitted  to  enter  some 
of  the  unimportant  rooms  in  it,  but  to-day- 
all  the  influence  that  any  person  could 
command  would  not  secure  the  admission 
of  an  unbeliever  within  its  sacred  portals. 

I  had  a  very  delightful  illustration  of 
the  vitality  and  advancement  of  the  Mor- 
mons this  afternoon.  When  our  party 
arrived  here  we  were  met  with  an  invi- 
tation to  visit  the  Tabernacle,  where  a 
special  organ  recital  would  be  given  for  us. 
It  was  gladly  accepted,  of  course,  for  I  was 
anxious  to  see  the  progress  the  church  had 
made  in  one  of  the  most  refining  agents  of 
humanity.  Regular  recitals  are  given  for 
an  hour  every  Wednesday  and  Saturday, 
and  the  public  cordially  invited  to  attend, 
but  the  special  recital  of  this  afternoon  was 
not  made  known  to  the  public,  and  when 
our  party  entered  the  immense  Tabernacle 
we  were  given  seats  in  the  gallery  at  the 

26 


TO   THE    PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

end  of  the  vast  amphitheatre  farthest  from 
the  organ.  It  was  rather  a  grotesque  spec- 
tacle for  a  party  of  half  a  score  to  be  in 
the  great  auditorium  that  seats  ten  thou- 
sand  people,  and  listen  to  an  organ  recital 
during  the  entire  hour,  when  there  were  not 
a  dozen  others  who  dropped  in.  We  were 
treated  to  the  most  exquisite  organ  music  I 
have  ever  heard.  It  has  been  the  pride  of 
the  Mormon  Church  to  furnish  the  best 
music  to  the  people.  When  I  was  here  a 
generation  ago,  the  small  Tabernacle  was 
in  use ;  it  seated  three  thousand  peo- 
ple, and  its  organ  had  been  built  entirely 
by  the  Mormons,  but  they  were  then  en- 
gaged in  building  the  new  Tabernacle  and 
organ,  and  after  ten  years  of  labor  both 
were  completed.  The  organ  was  then  the 
largest  ever  made,  and  is  now  exceeded  in 
size  by  but  very  few ;  but  they  are  just 
about  to  engage  in  the  work  of  increasing 

26 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

its  size  and  capacity,  and  when  that  shall 
have  been  completed,  they  will  justly  claim 
that  they  have  the  largest  organ  in  the 
world,  built  entirely  by  their  Mormon 
artisans,  and  wholly  made  from  home 
materials. 

The  organist  is  certainly  one  of  the  most 
accomplished  in  his  line  in  any  country.  I 
have  many  times  enjoyed  music  of  church 
organs,  but  I  have  never  heard  that  of  the 
Tabernacle  approached  in  any  of  the  im- 
portant attributes  of  exquisite  music.  One 
feature  of  this  organ  that  has  been  brought 
to  perfection  is  the  use  of  the  human-voice 
pipes,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish such  a  recital  from  the  music  of  a 
first-class  church  organ  Avith  an  elegant 
choir.  After  the  recital  I  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  meeting  the  organist,  Professor  Mc- 
Clellan,  who  exhibited  all  the  different 
qualities  of  his  great  organ  to  the  party, 

27 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

and  I  was  specially  gratified  to  meet  Mr. 
Ridges,  wlio  personally  constructed  both  of 
the  Mormon  organs.  He  told  me  that  this 
great  organ  had  been  built  entirely  by  car- 
penters under  his  immediate  direction,  not 
one  of  whom  had  ever  worked  upon  musi- 
cal instruments  before.  This  superb  music 
is  given  without  charge  in  semi-weekly 
recitals  for  the  benefit  of  all  who  shall 
come  to  enjoy  it,  and  the  regular  Mor- 
mon worship  in  the  Tabernacle  is  also 
free  to  all  visitors,  where  the  organ  may  be 
heard  accompanied  by  a  choir  of  five  hun- 
dred cultivated  singers.  It  would  be  im- 
possible that  such  cultivation  of  one  of  the 
most  refining  of  human  enjoyments  should 
not  make  its  impress  in  general  refinement 
upon  the  Mormon  people. 

Outside  of  the  old  square  that  holds 
the  Temple,  Tabernacle,  and  Assembly 
Hall,  Salt  Lake   City  to-day  is  simi^ly  a 

28 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

thriving,  progressive,  and  prosperous  city, 
with  private  homes  which  would  adorn 
Chestnut  Street,  and  banking  edifices 
which  would  be  creditable  in  Philadelphia 
financial  circles.  Great  industries  have 
grown  up,  not  only  in  and  around  the  city, 
but  throughout  the  State,  and  there  is 
hardly  a  necessity  of  the  people  of  Utah 
that  is  not  supplied  within  her  own  border. 
Such  is  the  matchless  progress  of  a  single 
generation  in  our  Kocky  Mountain  region, 
and  what  were  then  regarded  as  inhospit- 
able wildernesses,  have  now  been  grandly 
rounded  out  by  the  patient  labors  and  sac- 
rifices of  the  American  pioneer,  until  we 
have  an  unbroken  galaxy  of  sovereign 
States  from  the  Eastern  to  the  AYestern 
sea. 


29 


ACROSS   THE   SIERRAS   TO   SAN 
FRANCISCO 

San  Francisco,  January  26,  1901. 

Any  person  who  desires  to  get  a  lesson 
of  the  wonderful  progress  and  boundless 
resources  of  this  great  country  should 
take  a  journey  across  the  continent.  Such 
a  tour  should  not  be  made  hastily ;  but 
even  if  the  tourist  has  not  time  to  tarry 
at  every  point  of  interest,  it  is  well  worth 
the  making.  There  is  no  more  interesting 
trip,  taking  in  the  views  only  from  the 
car-windows,  than  that  across  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  the  Sierras  to  the  Golden 
Gate,  which  is  the  entrance  to  the  finest 
and  largest  harbor  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

There  is  but  little  change  in  the  moun- 
tain scenery  after  leaving  Salt  Lake  until 
you  enter  into  the  Sierras,  which  are  not 


■   TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND  MEXICO 

reached  for  some  hundreds  of  miles  west 
of  Ogden.  On  that  part  of  the  journey 
you  traverse  what  is  commonly  known  as 
the  desert  west  of  Salt  Lake,  and  it  does 
seem  to  be  the  most  inhospitable  region  that 
you  could  find  in  any  country.  But  even 
that  part  of  our  vast  and  confused  ranges 
of  mountains  is  not  wholly  unproductive. 
The  grass,  although  apparently  entirely 
parched  and  without  the  semblance  of  nu- 
trition, will  maintain  herds  of  cattle  any- 
where within  reach  of  water,  and  what 
seems  to  give  no  promise  of  life  whatever, 
is  utilized  along  the  few  streams  where 
stock  can  quench  their  thirst.  Here  and 
there,  but  many  miles  apart,  there  are 
slight  evidences  in  a  rude  way  of  business 
enterprise,  but  it  is  obvious  that  this  whole 
region  of  mountains  can  never  be  made 
generally  productive.  Wherever  there  is 
soil  in  any  of  our  Western  mountains  that 

31 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

can  be  reached  by  irrigation,  it  always  well 
repays  the  husbandman  ;  but  until  some 
vast  system  of  impounding  the  waters  of 
the  mountains  shall  have  been  adopted, 
there  must  be  millions  of  acres  where  seed- 
time and  harvest  will  be  unknown.  There 
is  no  part  of  the  mountain  region  where 
alkali  whitens  a  soil  of  any  depth  that  the 
most  bountiful  harvest  cannot  be  grown  if 
the  land  can  be  irrigated. 

In  traversing  more  than  a  thousand  miles 
of  wildly  confused  mountain  cliffs,  most  of 
them  utterly  barren,  relieved  only  by  the 
eternal  caps  of  snow  which  whiten  the  high- 
est of  them,  there  must  be  much  of  sameness 
in  the  general  views  presented,  but  to  the 
intelligent  tourist  there  are  new  features  to 
be  seen  in  almost  every  section  of  this 
mountain  region.  It  is  most  interesting  to 
watch  the  many  beautiful  and  fantastic 
illusions  which  crowd  upon  the  observant 

32 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

tourist.  lu  traversing  the  mountains  be- 
tween Salt  Lake  and  the  Sierras,  when 
the  sun  was  just  setting  and  beaming  its 
effulgence  only  on  the  highest  cliffs  behind 
us,  I  watched  for  some  time  what  I  sup- 
posed to  be  a  j)i*etty  lake  of  fresh  Avater. 
But  after  waiting  a  long  time  for  the  train 
to  get  up  to  it  and  pass  it,  I  discovered  that 
it  was  no  nearer  to  us  than  it  appeared  to 
be  when  five  miles  farther  from  it.  I  at 
once  began  an  investigation,  and  found 
that  there  was  not  a  lake  or  any  stream  of 
water  within  one  hundred  miles  of  us,  and 
that  what  I  supposed  to  be  a  lake  of  2)ure 
water  was  simply  the  God  of  Day  iu  the 
evening  twilight,  throwing  his  mellowed 
lustre  back  upon  the  snow-cap^^ed  cliff  of 
the  mountains. 

The  most  notable  observation  of  the 
Eastern  tourist  in  this  part  of  the  moun- 
tains is  the  entire  absence  of  anything  that 

3  33 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

is  green  except  here  aucl  tliere  the  stunted 
and  scraggy  bushes ;  but  when  the  Sierras 
are  reached  an  entirely  different  growth 
prevails,  and  though  the  altitude  is  much 
higher  than  that  reached  in  the  mountains 
between  the  Sierras  and  Salt  Lake,  the 
evergreen  pines,  wearing  the  richest  ver- 
dure, are  all  in  most  shapely  beauty,  large 
and  small.  In  the  Rocky  Mountains  there 
is  no  growth  of  timber  excepting  on  the 
northern  side  of  the  cliffs,  where  there  is 
soil  enough  for  the  trees  and  the  snow  es- 
capes melting  long  enough  to  give  moisture 
during  the  summer  season.  In  all  south- 
ern exposures  the  bronzed  cheeks  of  the 
mountains  are  whiskered  only  with  j)ines 
which  never  reach  the  dignity  of  trees,  and 
each  one  seems  to  have  chosen  a  home  of 
solitude  apart  from  its  fellows. 

The  Sierra  Nevadas  were  a  most  inter- 
esting study  to  me,  much  as  I  have  been 

34 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

among  the  Rocky  Mountains  eastward. 
You  enter  them  a  little  east  of  Truckee, 
where  we  breakfasted  at  a  temperature  of 
eight  degrees  below  zero,  and  thence  on  to 
Colfax  on  the  western  slope  there  is  most 
magnificent  mountain  scenery,  relieved  on 
every  hand  by  the  deep-green  verdure  of 
the  pines,  which  grow  in  exquisite  sym- 
metry. The  climatic  conditions  are  cer- 
tainly materially  different  in  the  Sierras 
and  the  Kocky  Mountains.  The  strange 
optical  illusions  which  confuse  the  Eastern 
traveller  in  the  Rockies  are  not  continued 
in  the  Sierras.  I  judge  that  the  explanation 
is  that  there  is  some  degree  of  humidity  in 
the  atmosphere  of  the  mountains  which 
wall  the  Pacific  slope.  As  a  monument  to 
American  engineering  the  Central  Pacific 
Railroad,  now  known  as  the  "  Southern 
Pacific,"  far  surpasses  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad    from   Ogden    to    Cheyenne,  and 

35 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

certainly  equals  the  engineering  achieve- 
ments of  the  Sante  Fe  Eailroad,  which 
traverses  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Arkansas 
E,iver  between  Pueblo  and  the  summit  of 
the  Rocky  range.  Away  up,  thousands 
of  feet  above  the  Horseshoe  Bend  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  that  famous  work 
has  its  copy  in  a  like  Horseshoe  Bend  in  the 
Sierras,  which  presents  vastly  greater  engi- 
neering achievements  than  are  exhibited  in 
our  Alleghanies,  and  in  the  whole  journey 
from  the  summit  of  the  Sierras  down  to 
the  green  fields  which  skirt  the  foot-hills 
of  the  mountains  in  California  there  is  a 
continuously  changing  magnificence  in  the 
views  which  are  presented  on  every  side. 

It  was  a  great  relief  to  get  away  from 
the  countless  and  confused  mountain  cliffs 
of  the  East,  on  which  not  a  single  blade  of 
grass  could  be  seen,  and  enjoy  the  heart- 
some  verdure  that  was    always  visible  in 

36 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   xMEXICO 

every  direction  iu  the  great  Sierras.  We 
breakfasted,  as  I  have  said,  at  a  temperature 
of  eight  degrees  below  zero,  and  lunched 
five  hours  later  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  beautiful  green  fields  and  blossoming 
flowers,  such  as  you  could  find  anywhere 
around  Philadelphia  in  May-time.  The 
foot-hills  of  the  mountains  in  California  are 
studded  with  orchards,  evidently  planted 
and  managed  with  the  greatest  care,  and  the 
winter  wheat-fields,  which  extend  on  every 
side  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see,  tell  the  story 
of  advanced  spring-time  that  is  hastening 
to  the  threshold  of  harvest.  One  of  the 
first  great  fruit  regions  that  we  meet  after 
leaving  the  mountains  is  largely  owned 
and  entirely  controlled  by  the  Armour 
interests  in  Chicago.  In  the  East  we 
know  of  the  great  Armour  only  as  the 
"  Cattle  King,"  but  here  his  hand  is  laid 
as  broadly  and  his  grip  as  firmly  on  the 

87 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

fruit-trade  of  California.  The  picture  of 
these  undulating  foot-hills  is  green  with  the 
promise  of  future  plenty,  showing  the  pros- 
perity of  the  fruit  farmers  in  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  home  pictures  I  have  ever 
seen  ;  and  looking  westward  over  the  vast, 
level  wheat-belt  that  extends  from  the  foot 
of  the  mountains  to  the  Pacific  the  whole 
country  seems  to  be  one  broad  expanse  of 
promising  and  boundless  harvest. 

The  men  who  constructed  this  great 
artery  of  trade  across  the  Sierra  Nevadas 
have  all  jDassed  away,  and  California  has 
done  them  little  justice.  The  names  of 
Huntington,  Stanford,  Crocker,  and  Hop- 
kins will  be  immortalized  when  the  history 
of  Western  progress  comes  to  tell  the  story 
of  the  greatest  achievements  of  Western 
men.  These  four  men,  possessing  but  a 
moderate  capital,  had  the  courage  to  un- 
dertake  the    construction    of    the   Central 

38 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


Pacific  Kailroad  from  San  Francisco  to  the 
Salt  Lake  Valley.  They  were  regarded 
by  most  of  their  friends  as  wild  enthu- 
siasts in  an  enterprise  that  could  bring 
them  only  bankruptcy  and  disaster.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  the  construction 
of  the  Union  Pacific  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  Salt  Lake  was  not  so  difficult  an 
undertaking,  as  all  the  supplies,  including 
iron  and  machinery,  could  be  brought  to 
them  direct  from  the  Eastern  centres  of 
trade ;  but  the  men  who  built  the  iron 
highway  of  the  Sierra  Nevadas  had  to 
ship  every  pound  of  iron  and  every  piece 
of  machinery  from  the  East  around  Cape 
Horn  to  California,  After  struggling  with 
threatened  bankruptcy  for  several  years 
they  finally  achieved  the  grand  success  of 
completing  their  enterprise,  and  it  brought 
them  large  fortunes,  as  they  well  deserved ; 
but  they  were  human,  as  are  most  men  who 

39 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

happen  to  seize  great  opportunities,  and 
soon  after  the  completion  of  the  railway 
came  war  between  a  large  portion  of  the 
people  and  the  railroad  magnates  that  has 
continued  even  until  this  day,  although 
the  great  creators  of  the  railway  have 
passed  to  their  final  account.  They  sought 
to  make  the  road  as  profitable  as  possible, 
as  they  were  without  competition,  and 
doubtless  made  harsh  exactions  upon  its 
travel  and  traffic,  but  these  men,  discounted 
by  all  their  infirmities  and  all  the  real  or 
imaginary  wrongs  which  have  provoked 
revolutionary  action  at  times  among  the 
people,  should  be  remembered  gratefully 
as  the  only  men  of  that  day  who  had  the 
courage,  the  energy,  and  the  indomitable 
will  to  begin  and  complete  the  construction 
of  the  railw'ay  over  the  Sierras.  Had 
they  done  as  much  for  England,  they 
would  have  died  peers  of  the  realm. 

40 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

I  had  a  most  entertaining  and  instruc- 
tive visit  to  this  city,  and  I  know  of  no 
place  on  the  continent  that  the  intelli- 
gent and  progressive  citizens  of  Philadel- 
phia could  visit  with  more  profit.  Here  is 
a  city  that  only  fifty  years  ago  was  a  rude 
mining-camp,  surrounded  by  a  straggling 
and  semi-barbarous  civilization,  and  to-day 
it  exhibits  more  broad-gauged  citizenship, 
more  municipal  pride,  more  generous  sup- 
port from  all  classes  of  citizens  than  any 
other  city  in  the  Union.  With  a  popula- 
tion of  one  million  less  than  Philadelphia, 
it  has  countless  monuments  of  cultivated, 
patriotic,  sentimental,  and  poetic  illustra- 
tion. 

Its  park  is  a  dream  of  beauty,  and  yet 
wholly  created  from  the  naked  sand-hills 
of  the  coast.  The  sand  valleys  and  gentle 
undulations,  once  entirely  guiltless  of  verd- 
ure, have  been  reclaimed,  and  from  end  to 

41 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

end  it  is  green  with  trees,  shrubs,  and 
vines,  beautiful  and  fragrant  with  flowers  ; 
and  there  is  no  class  of  good  citizenship  in 
the  city,  high  or  low,  that  has  not  its 
special  attractions.  Here  every  Sunday 
tens  of  thousands  of  people  ride  and  walk 
through  the  park  :  the  children  with  their 
parents  to  the  beautiful  playgrounds,  the 
athletes  to  the  magnificent  fields  for  base- 
and  foot-ball,  and  lovers  of  music  are  at- 
tracted by  a  colossal  pillared  music-stand 
erected  by  Glaus  Spreckels  that  would 
have  been  worthy  of  Kome  in  the  zenith 
of  the  empire.  There  the  patriotic  can 
study  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
many  statues  which  adorn  the  city,  repre- 
senting in  heroic  size  the  author  of  "  The 
Star-Spangled  Banner,"  and  one  of  the 
prominent  features  is  an  immense  cross 
erected  on  one  of  the  little  hills  of  the 
park  by  the  late  George  W.  Childs  to  com- 

42 


X 
m 

o 
o 

» 
PI 


/ 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

inemorate  the  first  Episcopal  services  on 
the  coast. 

At  the  end  of  the  park  is  the  Cliff  House, 
whose  porches  overhang  the  surging  waves 
and  sad  music  of  the  Pacific,  and  only  a 
few  feet  from  the  shore  are  huge  rocks 
covered  with  croaking  seals.  Roads  for 
carriages  and  bicycles  are  as  superb  as 
the  most  cultivated  engineering  and  liberal 
expenditure  can  make  them,  and  this  part 
tells  to  every  stranger  who  enters  it  the 
story  of  the  energy  and  restless  progress 
of  the  people  of  the  Golden  Gate  city. 
They  are  liberal  and  progressive  in  every- 
thing that  can  create  new  landmarks  of 
beneficent  achievement,  and  their  hospitality 
is  justly  claimed  as  one  of  the  brightest 
jewels  of  their  advancement. 

The  mayor  of  San  Francisco  is  taken 
from  its  circle  of  solid  business  men.  It 
has  not  always  been  so,  but  tlie  spot  where 

43 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Dennis  Kearney  harangued  his  hoodlums 
on  the  sand  lots  only  a  score  of  years  ago 
is  now  under  the  shadow  of  the  magnificent 
city  hall,  with  its  tower  reaching  thirty 
feet  above  the  dome  of  the  Washington 
Capitol.  Mayor  Phelan  has  been  thrice 
elected  to  his  high  office,  and  he  has  made 
a  most  noble  record  for  his  yet  infant  city. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  there  is  bitter  politi- 
cal strife,  and  men  are  arrayed  against 
each  other  on  local  lines,  largely  growing 
out  of  railroad  issues  which  have  not  yet 
perished ;  but  the  interest  and  advance- 
ment of  San  Francisco  seem  to  be  thor- 
oughly grounded  in  the  convictions  of  the 
community  as  paramount.  I  leave  this 
beautiful  and  progressive  city  with  the 
highest  appreciation  of  its  intelligent  and 
patriotic  progress,  and  must  ever  cherish 
most  grateful  memories  of  its  welcome  to 
the  stranger  within  its  gates. 

44 


FROxM    SAN    FRANCISCO    TO 
MEXICO 

City  op  Mexico,  February  1,  1901. 
With  the  exception  of  the  green  cliffs 
of  the  Sierras,  the  beautiful  plains  of  Cali- 
fornia west  of  the  mountains,  and  the  fruit- 
ful valley  in  which  the  Mexican  capital  is 
located,  tliere  is  a  tiresome  degree  of  same- 
ness in  the  scenery  from  Salt  Lake  around 
by  San  Francisco  and  down  by  El  Paso 
to  this  city.  You  are  never  out  of  sight 
of  the  range  of  mountains,  and  with  the 
exception  of  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  all  pre- 
sent the  same  bleak  and  inhospitable  cliffs, 
standing  as  eternal  sentinels  on  continuous 
plains,  usually  guiltless  of  the  semblance 
of  verdure,  although  many  of  them  have 
immense  flocks  of  cattle,  horses,  and  sheep 
upon  them. 

45 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

The  country  from  San  Francisco  to  El 
Paso,  where  the  tourist  diverges  into  Mexico 
by  crossing  the  Rio  Grande,  has  very  much 
of  sameness  after  you  get  beyond  Los  An- 
geles. Southern  California  is  certainly 
one  of  the  most  heartsome  and  apparently 
wholesome  countries  I  have  ever  seen,  and 
I  found  at  Los  Angeles — the  only  place 
where  I  made  an  extended  stay — a  number 
of  Eastern  people  who  were  spending  their 
winters  there  to  escape  the  cold  blasts  of 
the  North.  It  is  located  in  a  beautiful 
section,  with  many  evidences  of  fruitful- 
ness  around  it,  and  its  advancement  may 
be  understood  when  it  is  told  that  it  more 
than  doubled  its  population  during  the  last 
decade.  Ten  years  ago  the  population  was 
about  fifty  thousand ;  to-day  it  is  over  one 
hundred  thousand,  and  has  every  sign  of 
solid  and  enduring  improvement.  While 
spending  a  day  there,  we  were  favored  with 

46 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

what  they  call  a  "  tramjD-rain,"  which  gave 
a  delightful  shower  of  several  hours,  when 
the  clouds  rolled  bv  and  the  sun  came  out, 
with  a  brightened  and  refreshed  verdure  all 
about  us.  It  has  perhaps  about  as  equable 
a  climate  as  there  is  on  the  continent,  and 
while  there  are  many  other  attractive  places 
in  Southern  California,  some  of  which  may 
have  advantages  over  Los  Angeles  for  a 
temporary  sojourn,  it  may  now  be  ac- 
cepted as  settled  that  Los  Angeles  ("  The 
Angels")  seems  certain  to  be  the  centre  of 
attraction  to  those  who  wish  to  see  the 
varied  beauties  and  enjoy  the  agreeable 
climate  of  Southern  California. 

In  taking  a  drive  through  the  city  the 
coachman  pointed  out  a  briglit  little  cottage 
nestling  behind  orange-trees  heavily  laden 
with  fruit,  and  informed  me  that  it  was  the 
residence  of  the  widow  of  General  John  C. 
Fremont.     I  took  the  liberty  of  calling  upon 

47 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

her,  and  was  welcomed  at  the  threshold  by 
her  daughter,  who  very  kindly  invited  me 
into  the  parlor,  where  I  found  a  decrepit  old 
lady,  unable  to  rise  from  her  chair,  but 
engaged  at  literary  work.  I  apologized  for 
my  intrusion  by  saying  that  I  had  been  a 
delegate  to  the  convention  which  nominated 
General  Fremont  for  President  in  1856, 
and  that  I  simply  desired  to  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  a  personal  visit  to  the  wife  of  one 
whose  life  was  so  sublimely  interwoven  with 
the  romance  of  American  history.  She 
gave  me  more  than  a  cordial  welcome,  and 
her  pale,  emaciated  face  brightened  at  the 
tribute  jDaid  to  the  memory  of  the  husband 
to  whom  she  was  so  ardently  devoted.  I 
made  the  visit  brief,  as  extended  conversa- 
tion would  have  wearied  her,  and  she  gave 
me  a  very  fervent  clasp  of  the  hand  as  I 
bade  her  farewell. 

Her   family    consists   of  herself   and    a 

48 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

maiden  daughter,  wliose  head  is  well  sil- 
vered by  age.  Mrs.  Fremont's  means  are 
quite  limited,  but  a  society  of  ladies  of 
the  city  are  taking  care  that  she  shall 
never  want  for  any  of  the  comforts  of  life. 
She  is  writing  the  biography  of  her  hus- 
band, which  will  doubtless,  when  pub- 
lished, be  welcomed  by  the  many  who,  in 
the  bright  times  of  the  Republican  party 
of  to-day,  turn  back  to  its  first  great  strug- 
gles in  1856,  when  the  "  Pathfinder  of  the 
Rockies"  was  in  fact  the  pathfinder  of 
Republicanism. 

The  route  from  Southern  California  to 
El  Paso  crosses  the  entire  Territory  of 
Arizona  and  a  large  portion  of  New 
Mexico,  a  distance  of  about  five  hundred 
miles,  and  it  is  the  most  inhospitable  re- 
gion I  have  ever  found  in  traversing  almost 
every  part  of  the  Rockies,  the  Sierras  of 
California  and  the  Sierra  Madres,  in  both 

4  49 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

the  United  States  and  Mexico.  Fortu- 
nately it  was  midwinter,  and  we  suffered 
comjDaratively  little  from  the  impalpable 
dust  highly  charged  with  alkali  that  pene- 
trates not  only  the  eyes,  ears,  nose,  and 
mouth,  but  I  found  it  even  inside  of  my 
tightly  fitting  watch-case.  There  is  hardly 
a  sign  of  American  civilization  to  be  found 
in  that  entire  journey.  Here  and  there 
are  rude  villages  of  a  few  adobe  dwellings, 
with  occasionally  one  little  frame  building 
that  gives  some  outward  signs  of  the  com- 
forts of  home,  but  as  far  as  can  be  seen 
over  the  sage-brush  plains  to  the  confusion 
of  mountains  which  wall  them  in  there  is 
rarely  a  green  patch  in  sight.  A  vast 
amount  of  stock  is  grown  upon  them,  but 
the  absence  of  water  brings  an  element  of 
danger  even  to  the  stock-grower,  as  in  times 
of  drought  they  become  extremely  dry  and 
whole    droves    are    sometimes    lost,    while 

50 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

others  may  be  saved  by  early  driving  to 
more  favored  regions.  Where  water  can 
be  had  for  irrigation,  the  soil  responds 
very  bountifully,  and  alfalfa  can  be  grown 
to  protect  herds  from  drought,  but  there 
are  so  few  places  where  water  is  obtainable 
that  the  country  is  not  likely  ever  to  be 
much  more  promising  than  it  is  to-day. 
Both  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  have  boun- 
tiful valleys  where  there  is  an  abundance 
of  water,  but  the  line  of  the  railway  is 
necessarily  located  on  the  least  fruitful 
portions  of  both  these  Territories. 

El  Paso  is  on  the  northern  bank  of  the 
Rio  Grande  and  the  extreme  southern  line 
of  Texas.  There  is  little  about  it  to  build 
up  a  city,  beyond  the  seven  or  more  rail- 
roads which  centre  there,  but  the  large 
traflic  and  travel  between  the  United  States 
and  Mexico  have  made  it  a  prosperous  city, 
and  it  is  likely  to  continue  in  its  growth. 

51 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Whenever  the  Kio  Grande  is  crossed 
you  are  met  by  the  Mexican  customs  officer, 
dressed  in  a  style  that  at  once  distinguishes 
him  from  the  common  herd  of  Indians  and 
half-breeds  seen  about  the  stations  on  the 
way.  The  height  of  crown  and  elegance 
of  gold  embroidery  of  his  sombrero  and 
his  flowing  cloak  and  gilded  uniform  would 
do  justice  to  an  Oriental  monarch,  and  his 
manner  is  that  of  a  modern  Cf^esar.  It 
required  an  hour  and  a  half  for  the  Mexi- 
can customs  officers  to  inspect  the  baggage 
and  j^ersons  of  the  passengers,  and  in  most 
instances  it  was  done  exhaustively,  as 
smuggling  in  a  small  way  is  very  common. 
I  consulted  the  conductor,  who  was  an 
American,  as  to  how  best  to  get  along  with 
the  Mexican  officials,  and  he  said  it  de- 
pended altogether  upon  the  particular  offi- 
cer who  happened  to  come  into  the  car. 
He  added  that  he  would  find  an  officer  and 

52 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

bring  liira  in.  In  a  little  while  he  appeared 
with  an  officer,  who  walked  through  the 
car,  looked  at  the  trunks  without  touching 
them  or  even  asking  that  they  be  opened, 
and  after  an  apparently  careful  inspection 
of  the  occupants,  he  made  a  very  polite 
bow  and  said  that  all  was  well. 

When  he  j)assed  from  the  car  I  asked 
the  conductor  whether  he  expected  to  be 
tipped.  He  said  he  thought  it  well  to 
suggest  it.  I  asked  him  what  he  thought 
the  officer  would  expect.  He  said  a  dollar, 
Mexican  money.  An  American  half-dollar 
was  taken  by  the  conductor,  but  the  officer 
came  back  and  bowed  again  and  stated 
that  he  knew  there  were  no  smugglers  in 
private  cars,  and  very  politely  declined 
the  tip. 

Rare  as  are  the  evidences  of  progressive 
civilization  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona 
along    the    line   of    the   Southern    Pacific 

53 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Kailroad,  the  traveller  notices  at  once  when 
he  gets  into  Mexico  that  an  entirely  different 
civilization  is  presented.  At  all  the  sta- 
tions there  were  crowds  of  idlers ;  men, 
woraen,  and  children,  all  illy  clad  and 
without  any  semblance  of  business  enter- 
prise. What  first  impressed  me  most  was 
the  large  number  of  full-blooded  Indians. 
In  a  crowd  of  fifty  it  is  very  rare  to  see  as 
many  as  half  a  dozen  half-breeds,  and  they 
were  little,  if  any,  improvement  on  the 
aborigines. 

I  had  supposed  that  the  Mexican  blood 
was  more  largely  dominant  among  the 
Mexican  people,  but  in  a  journey  of  over 
twelve  hundred  miles  from  El  Paso  to  this 
city  I  found  no  change.  Here  and  there 
a  trace  of  the  Spaniard  could  be  found,  but, 
as  a  rule,  pure-blooded  Indians  prevailed 
everywhere,  and  most  of  them  seemed  to 
have  learned  very  little  since  Cortez  came 

54 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

to  teacli  tliem  the  new  civilization  of  Spain. 
The  only  thing  that  is  visible  on  every 
hand  as  a  monument  of  the  Cortez  invasion 
and  conquest  is  the  cross.  I  have  never 
been  out  of  sight  of  the  cross  from  the  Kio 
Grande  to  this  city.  It  is  found  not  only 
on  graves,  churches,  and  many  other  build- 
ings, but  uniformly  on  the  mile-posts  of 
the  railroad.  The  cross  is  a  protection  to 
the  mile-post,  as  the  religious  superstition 
of  the  natives  prevents  them  from  steal- 
ing it,  and  it  possibly  increases  the  safety 
of  the  line  from  spoliation  in  other  ways. 

The  country  through  Mexico  on  the  line 
of  the  railroad  is  generally  quite  an  im- 
provement over  the  country  traversed  by 
the  railroad  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico, 
but  it  is  only  here  and  there  that  there  are 
any  marked  evidences  of  civilization.  The 
average  home  of  the  Mexican  is  a  little 
adobe  lint  of  a  single  low  story,  and  many 

66 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

of  them  not  large  enough  to  make  a  com- 
fortable-sized bath-room  in  a  Philadelphia 
house.  There  is  sometimes  an  opening  in 
the  wall  which  serves  the  purpose  of  a 
window,  but  always  guiltless  of  glass,  and 
this  is  the  home  of  four-fifths  of  the  Mexi- 
can people.  Throughout  Mexico  there  are 
many  delightful  exceptions  to  the  general 
squalor  that  prevails.  Some  of  the  ranches 
have  on  them  elegant  homes  with  superb 
furnishings,  and  most  of  them  are  owned 
by  pure  Spaniards ;  but  outside  of  that 
class  and  a  few  families  of  fortune  in  the 
towns  and  cities  the  poverty  of  Mexico  is 
aiDpalling.  Theft  is  so  common  that  a 
porter  in  charge  of  a  private  car  is  com- 
pelled to  watch  it  night  and  day,  or  the 
locks  of  his  meat  refrigerator  would  be 
broken  and  the  brass  finishings  of  the  car 
wrenched  from  it,  to  be  sold  for  whatever 
they  would  bring. 

56 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

The  large  preponderance  of  the  Indian 
race  in  this  country  is  not  so  surprising 
when  it  is  remembered  that  some  of  the 
most  heroic  achievements  of  Mexican  his- 
tory have  made  the  names  of  j)ure-blooded 
Indians  immortal.  Juarez,  who  was  driven 
from  his  capital  by  Maximilian,  and  who 
in  turn  executed  the  invader,  was  a  full- 
blooded  Indian,  and  President  Diaz,  who 
has  done  more  for  Mexico  than  any  man 
who  ever  lived  in  it,  is  of  half  Indian 
blood.  The  Spanish  are  still  here,  but 
they  are  a  select  class,  as  a  rule.  When 
the  Spaniard  has  lost  fortune,  his  individ- 
uality and  even  his  race  become  lost  by 
intermingling  with  the  Indians,  but  there 
are  yet  a  considerable  number  who  cherish 
the  old  Castilian  pride,  and  have  main- 
tained more  or  less  of  fortune. 

The  Valley  of  Mexico,  in  which  the 
capital  is  located,  is  almost  a  copy  of  Salt 

57 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Lake  Valley.  They  are  the  two  most  fruit- 
ful and  beautiful  of  any  of  the  mountain 
valleys  on  the  continent,  and  each  is  sur- 
rounded by  cliffs  and  mountains  with  their 
eternal  caps  of  snow.  The  chief  difference 
between  this  valley  and  that  of  Salt  Lake 
is  the  cultivation  of  the  maguey  plant, 
which  you  see  spread  over  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  acres,  making  the  whole 
country  bright  with  the  rich,  green  verdure 
it  jDresents.  It  is  known  in  the  United 
States  as  the  aloe  plant,  but  has  no  value 
either  for  commercial  or  ornamental  pur- 
poses, while  here  it  is  very  remunerative  to 
the  Mexican  husbandman.  It  is  grown 
for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  the  common 
drink  of  the  Mexican  people,  known  as 
pulque.  It  has  to  be  drawn  from  the 
stocks  every  day.  The  method  of  draw- 
ing it  is  to  hollow  out  a  gourd  and  make 
a   hole   in    each  end  of  it.     The   maguey 

58 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

plant  is  then  scraped  out,  and  as  the  liquid 
flows  from  it  the  operator,  with  his  mouth 
on  one  end  of  the  gourd,  at  the  opening, 
draws  the  liquid  in  at  the  other  end,  and 
when  the  gourd  is  filled,  empties  it  into  a 
receptacle  and  repeats  the  operation.  It  is 
then  emptied  into  pig-skins  and  brought 
into  the  city  fresh  every  morning,  where  it 
is  enjoyed  by  the  great  mass  of  the  Mexi- 
can people.  It  does  not  keep  over  a  day, 
and  what  is  not  sold  by  night  is  thrown 
away.  Another  Mexican  drink,  distilled 
from  sugar-cane,  and  resembling  brandy, 
is  tequila.  As  an  intoxicant,  pulque  bears 
about  the  same  relation  to  tequila  as  beer 
bears  to  whiskey  in  the  States. 

My  first  experience  in  the  City  of 
Mexico  was  not  particularly  enjoyable. 
Everything  seemed  to  be  going  at  a  head- 
long gait,  the  streets  were  crowded,  and 
business   liustliiig ;    but    when    I    went   to 

69 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

the  chief  hotel  of  the  city,  the  Iturbide, 
there  was  not  a  man  in  the  office  or  about 
it  who  could  speak  English.  I  finally 
managed  to  get  it  understood  that  I  wanted 
letters  which  were  directed  there,  and  I 
was  pointed  to  a  peck  or  more  of  letters 
lying  on  a  table,  where  I  found  a  number 
for  myself  and  members  of  my  party.  I 
had  ordered  newspapers  sent  to  me,  and 
after  much  difficulty  I  made  it  understood 
that  I  expected  some  newspapers,  but  was 
told  that  there  was  none  there.  I  was 
persistent,  as  I  was  anxious  to  see  the 
papers  from  home,  and  finally  I  was  re- 
ferred to  a  Mexican  in  a  little  office-box 
who  had  charge  of  the  keys  of  the  rooms, 
and  after  much  difficulty  got  him  to  under- 
stand what  I  wanted.  He  shook  his  head 
and  insisted  that  none  had  come. 

Knowing  the   common  infirmity  of  the 
people  here  in  the  matter  of  lying,  I  man- 

60 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

aged  to  get  an  interpreter  to  make  the  fel- 
low understand  that  there  were  newspapers, 
and  that  I  must  have  them.  He  finally 
pointed  to  a  dark  corner  in  the  rear  of  his 
little  room,  where  there  was  certainly  a 
barrel  of  newspapers,  j^amphlets,  and 
debris  of  all  sorts  in  confusion.  He  said 
there  might  be  some  there,  but  he  had  not 
time  to  get  them.  I  inquired  when  he 
would  have  time,  to  which  he  answered 
that  he  might  be  able  to  look  during  the 
day.  I  then  insisted  upon  looking  myself, 
and  found  a  number  of  Philadelphia 
papers.  I  concluded  that  I  did  not  want 
to  stop  as  a  guest  of  the  hotel,  and  went  to 
the  Hotel  Sanz,  where  I  found  comfortable 
quarters  and  several  persons  who  62:»oke 
English  very  well. 


61 


THE     CATHEDRAL,     THE     BULL- 
FIGHT,  THE   GAMBLING-PALACE 

City  of  Mexico,  February  4,  1901. 

Sunday  is  the  only  day  in  which  the 
Mexican  character  can  be  studied  with 
accuracy.  It  is  a  day  of  mingled  wor- 
ship and  sport,  and  generally  devoted  to 
enjoyment  by  all  classes  and  conditions. 
An  intelligent  tourist  may  mingle  with 
the  Mexican  jDCople  in  all  their  varied 
relations  of  life  for  months  and  not  see 
them  as  they  really  are,  but  a  single 
Sunday  in  which  the  Mexican  is  followed 
from  his  morning  altar  to  his  afternoon 
bull-fight  and  to  his  evening  Mexican 
Monte  Carlo  shows  that  many  of  the 
same  people  are  to  be  met  at  all  these 
notable  centres,  where  the  Mexican  is 
seen  in  his  every-day  life  and  where  one 

62 


^^rT^lf^^. 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

can  readily  comprehend  his  general  char- 
acter. 

One  of  the  most  notable  landmarks  of 
the  Mexican  conquest  nearly  four  centuries 
aajo  is  the  cathedral.  It  faces  the  front 
of  the  grand  plaza  of  the  city  on  the 
north,  and  is  the  most  pretentious  of  all 
the  Christian  churches  in  the  New  World. 
It  is  called  the  Holy  Metroj^olitan  Church 
of  Mexico,  and  was  erected  on  the  site  of 
the  great  Aztec  temple,  that  told  in  some 
measure  the  story  of  the  prehistoric  people 
of  this  country.  It  is  a  fearful  rei^roach  to 
the  Spaniards,  and  especially  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Christianity  who  first  came 
into  Mexico,  that  they  destroyed  every  ves- 
tige of  what  they  called  the  j^agan  altars. 
So  far  as  it  was  possible,  the  early  monks 
effaced  every  sign  of  the  Toltecs  and  of 
their  successors,  the  Aztecs,  and  with  them 
the  history  of  that  civilization,  if  it  may  be 

63 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

so  called,  which  was  preserved  with  much 
care  by  the  aborigines. 

They  not  only  had  their  temples,  all  of 
which  exhibit  a  degree  of  intelligence  and 
general  enlightenment  far  exceeding  that 
ever  exhibited  by  the  Indians  in  the  United 
States,  but  the  Sj^aniards  left  no  monu- 
ments that  indicated  a  purpose  to  preserve 
early  history  and  achievements.  The 
Toltecs,  who  ruled  this  country  some 
fifteen  centuries  ago,  had  their  temples  and 
their  shrines,  more  or  less  imposing,  in 
every  community.  Many  of  their  temples 
and  monoliths  were  covered  with  hiero- 
glyphics to  give  some  record  of  their  im- 
portance and  progress,  and  they  advanced 
to  the  extent  of  additional  efforts  to  pre- 
serve their  history  by  paintings  on  canvas 
made  of  the  fibre  of  the  maguey  plant 
and  on  the  skins  of  animals,  all  of  which 
were  doomed  to  destruction  by  those  who 

64 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

planted  here  the  banner  of  the  cross. 
Fortunately,  a  few,  yet  very  few,  of  these 
works  have  been  preserved,  and  may  be 
seen  in  the  National  Museum  in  this  city. 
The  ruins  of  their  temples  remain  in 
many  sections,  with  immense  decorated 
monoliths  which  show  a  degree  of  culture 
and  general  intelligence  not  exhibited  in 
any  other  section  occupied  by  Indians  in 
the  AVestern  World. 

Their  great  temj^le  was  in  this  city,  then 
known  as  Tenochtitlan,  and  it  was  not  only 
destroyed  by  the  Spanish,  but  as  far  as 
possible  every  relic  and  vestige  of  it  oblit- 
erated. In  its  place  is  now  reared  the 
great  cathedral  that  was  commenced  im- 
mediately after  the  occupation  by  the 
Spanish.  It  was  nearly  eiglity  years  before 
it  was  completed  to  an  extent  sufficient  to 
justify  its  dedication,  and  nearly  a  century 
and    a   quarter   elapsed    before    its  towers 

6  66 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

were  erected  and  its  bells  placed  in  posi- 
tion. It  is  four  hundred  feet  in  length 
and  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  feet  in 
width,  with  a  height  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-nine  feet  from  the  roof  to  the  tiles, 
while  the  towers  reach  the  height  of  over 
two  hundred  feet.  The  front  fa§ade  is 
magnificently  carved  and  rich  with  friezes 
and  marble  statues  between  the  two  leading 
towers,  which  are  replete  with  bell-shaped 
caps,  and  the  cross  in  stone  is  always  in 
view.  The  cornices  are  filled  with  statues 
of  saints  and  leaders  of  the  church.  Its 
architecture  is  a  mixture  of  Gothic  and 
Doric,  and  twenty  most  massive  fluted 
columns  of  stone  support  the  roof,  which 
under  the  dome  are  shaped  into  a  Latin 
cross. 

This  great  cathedral  has  fourteen  chapels 
or  shrines,  one-half  in  each  aisle,  all  of 
which   are    dedicated    to   some   particular 

66 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

saint,  and  exquisite  pictures,  enclosed  in 
the  richest  gilt,  portray  the  lives  of  notable 
saints. 

I  went  to  the  cathedral  about  ten  o'clock 
on  Sunday  morning  and  found  religious 
ceremonies  progressing  with  a  multitudi- 
nous assembly  in  the  great  auditorium  in 
the  front  part  of  the  building.  There  were 
no  chairs  or  other  seats  in  this  apartment, 
and  all  worshipped  in  a  kneeling  position. 
Passing  along  the  richly  decorated  aisle 
to  the  northern  auditorium  another  large 
assembly  of  worshippers  was  presented. 
Some  were  sitting  on  the  very  rude  and 
evidently  very  ancient  benches,  while 
others  were  on  their  knees.  This  seemed 
to  be  the  centre  of  ceremony,  as  a  number 
of  priests  were  officiating  at  what  is  known 
as  the  high  altar.  The  northern  end  of 
the  cathedral  has  the  richest  and  most  ex- 
quisitely finished  altar  to  be  found  in  any 

67 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

country  outside  of  Kome.  Every  part  of 
both  the  long  aisles  is  decorated  with  the 
highest  types  of  art  of  the  age  in  which 
they  were  produced,  and  would  be  an  in- 
teresting study  for  days  to  any  one  specially 
interested  in  the  art  of  five  centuries  ago 
in  both  architecture  and  painting. 

Standing  near  the  centre  of  this  great 
church,  it  is  appalling  in  its  colossal  mag- 
nificence, and  while  everything  in  and 
about  the  cathedral  shows  unmistakable 
marks  of  age,  all  have  been  preserved  with 
scrupulous  care  and  kept  as  a  perjoetual 
record  of  the  grandeur  that  was  inter- 
woven with  Christianity  in  the  dark  days 
of  four  centuries  ago. 

I  was  much  surprised  to  find  but  few 
of  the  better  class  of  Mexicans.  At  the 
doors  I  saw  no  carriages  around  the  cathe- 
dral, and  in  the  vast  assemblage,  and 
among  the  many  who  were  on  their  knees 

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TO   THE    PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

at  every  step  from  one  eud  to  the  other  of 
these  long  aisles,  I  rarely  saw  any  one 
whose  appearance  indicated  the  average  in- 
telligence of  the  better  class  of  Mexicans. 
At  the  doors  of  entry,  both  inside  and  out- 
side, Mexican  beggars  were  j)lying  their 
vocation  without  interruption,  and  it  soon 
became  evident  that  this  grand  cathedral, 
that  should  naturally  be  the  pride  of  all 
the  members  of  its  faith,  is  the  place  of 
worship  of  the  poor.  I  saw  hundreds  of 
ragged  Indians  among  the  worshippers, 
and  the  rule  among  them  all  was  obvious 
poverty  and  ignorance. 

The  music,  of  course,  was  superb,  befit- 
ting its  exceptionally  rich  surroundings, 
but  this  great  temple  of  religious  culture 
and  embellishment  is  shunned  by  the  better 
class  of  Mexicans. 

After  spending  an  hour  in  the  cathedral 
I  asked  my  guide  where  the  better  class  of 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Mexicans  worshipped,  and  learned  from 
him  that  the  cathedral  was  the  altar  of  the 
multitude,  while  a  much  better  class  wor- 
shipped at  San  Felipe.  We  repaired  to 
that  church,  of  only  moderate  size,  but 
elegant  in  architecture  and  decoration,  as 
are  all  the  churches  in  Mexico,  and  there 
found  an  assembly  of  quite  cultivated  and 
intelligent  people.  I  did  not  notice  among 
them,  however,  the  class  of  Mexicans  I 
desired  to  see  at  worship,  and  upon  inquiry 
I  learned  that  most  of  the  Spanish  and 
Mexican  grandees  have  their  own  altars  at 
their  homes,  where  a  priest  comes  at  stated 
intervals  to  minister  to  them. 

After  devoting  Sunday  morning  to  re- 
ligious services,  the  next  illustration  of 
Mexican  tastes,  habits,  and  enjoyments  was 
given  at  the  bull-fight,  which  is  held  every 
Sunday  afternoon,  beginning  promptly  at 
3.30  o'clock.     I  went  early  to  escape  the 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

blinding  dust  of  the  Mexican  suburban 
streets,  and  finally  brought  up  before  an 
immense  pavilion,  capable  of  seating  fifteen 
thousand  people,  with  double  rows  of  pri- 
vate boxes,  which  are  almost  invariably- 
filled,  and  largely  by  American  visitors. 
As  far  as  I  could  see  from  both  sides  of 
my  box,  they  were  occupied  entirely  by 
Americans,  while  the  Mexican  jDcople,  en 
masse,  as  it  would  seem,  crowded  the  seats, 
which  run  down  close  to  the  ring.  A 
judge  was  in  one  of  the  upper  boxes,  where 
he  had  full  view  of  all  the  conflicts  in  the 
ring,  and  communicated  with  a  bugler, 
who  issued  the  orders  at  every  stage  of 
the  proceedings.  Although  the  day  was 
beautiful,  the  attendance  was  disappointing 
to  the  Mexicans,  as  there  were  only  about 
ten  thousand  peoj^le  present.  That  was 
explained  by  the  absence  of  any  great 
star  toreador,  all  of  them  being  Mexicans, 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

while  the  attractive  stars  of  the  profession 
come  from  Spain. 

The  immense  audience  was  an  interesting 
study.  It  was  not  in  any  material  degree 
composed  of  those  we  would  describe  as 
the  toughs  or  roughs  of  our  Eastern  cities. 
The  lower  grade  of  Mexican  is,  as  a  rule, 
too  poor  to  enjoy  a  bull-fight,  and  the 
vast  audience  plainly  exhibited  the  combi- 
nation of  the  average  and  better  class  of 
Mexicans.  It  is  quite  the  thing  for  the 
best  people  of  the  city  and  the  highest 
officials  to  be  present  at  the  bull-fight. 
President  Diaz  has  honored  it  with  his 
presence,  although  not  a  frequent  atten- 
dant, and  the  most  cultured  families  of 
Mexico  regard  it  as  entirely  becoming  to 
witness  this  lingering  relic  of  Spanish 
brutality. 

Precisely  at  half-past  three  o'clock,  a 
door  opened  on  the  northern  side  of  the 

72 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

ring  and  the  algnazil  entered,  mounted 
on  a  splendid  horse,  both  man  and  horse 
wearing  the  gaudiest  trappings.  He  was 
welcomed  with  hearty  shouts,  and  bowed 
gratefully  to  the  vast  audience  on  every 
side.  After  j^troperly  saluting  the  people, 
he  rode  to  the  front  of  the  box  of  the 
judge,  or  president,  and  formally  asked 
permission  to  kill  the  bulls.  This  was 
promptly  granted,  and  the  keys  of  the 
toril,  or  pen,  in  which  the  bulls  were 
confined,  were  tossed  to  him.  This  is  his 
only  part  in  the  performance,  and  he  is 
cheered  or  hissed  as  he  happens  to  catch, 
or  fails  to  catch,  the  keys  which  are 
thrown  to  him  from  the  upper  box.  The 
gate  then  opened  again,  and  the  brilliantly 
equipped  company  of  toreadors  and  their 
various  attendants  was  announced  by  the 
band  giving  out  its  highest  notes.  Alto- 
gether there  were  j)robably  twenty  of  tliem, 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

all  richly  caparisoned.  Tlie}^  marched 
across  the  ring,  amid  thunders  of  applause 
from  the  audience,  and  made  their  bow  to 
the  president  before  the  fight  began. 

The  men  immediately  concerned  in  the 
fight  are, — first,  the  matadors,  who  are  the 
stars  of  the  company,  and  attract  here  just 
as  great  stars  attract  in  dramatic  circles  in 
other  countries.  They  are  not  permitted 
to  take  any  part  in  the  combat  until  the 
bugle  announces  that  the  bull  shall  be 
killed.  A  single  matador  then  comes  for- 
ward with  a  sword,  and  he  is  aided  in  dis- 
tracting the  attention  of  the  bull  by  the 
banderilleros,  who  are  second  only  to  the 
matador  in  the  profession.  Next  in  rank 
come  the  picadors,  who  are  on  horseback, 
with  long  and  sharp-pointed  lances.  They 
are  mounted  on  old  and  generally  worthless 
horses,  fit  only  to  be  killed,  and  most  of 
the  horses  suffer  death.     In  addition  to  the 

74 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

artistes  of  the  battle  there  are  four  richly- 
decorated  mules,  whose  office  is  to  drag 
out  the  dead  bulls  and  horses.  They  are 
attended  by  men  with  shovels  and  brooms 
to  clear  up  the  ring,  and  with  boxes  con- 
taining sand,  with  which  they  cover  the 
blood  that  is  shed  in  the  arena  after  each 
fight. 

The  toreador  is  always  dressed  in  the 
richest  costume,  and  only  that  which  be- 
longs distinctly  to  his  profession,  exhibiting 
silk,  satin,  and  velvet,  with  golden  decora- 
tions. The  most  distinguishing  mark  of 
the  toreador  is  the  small  cue  of  jDlaited  hair, 
whicli  is  regarded  as  an  evidence  of  merit, 
as  it  is  ruthlessly  cut  off  with  scissors  of 
gold  when  he  fails  to  meet  all  the  require- 
ments of  his  2>rofession. 

A  blast  of  the  bugle  announces  that  a 
bull  is  about  to  be  admitted  to  the  ring, 
and  one  trained  to  the  business  at  the  side 

76 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

of  the  door  and  above  the  reach  of  the  bull 
plunges  a  sharp  barbed  dart,  gayly  deco- 
rated with  ribbons,  into  the  neck  of  the 
animal.  This  is  intended  to  anger  him 
at  the  start  and  make  him  enter  the  ring 
ready  for  battle. 

The  first  bull  plunged  into  the  ring  in  a 
most  ferocious  manner.  His  weight  was 
probably  about  one  thousand  pounds,  and 
he  exhibited  the  most  complete  symmetry 
of  form,  with  every  evidence  of  strength. 
These  bulls  are  grown  in  the  mountains 
of  Mexico  in  as  wild  a  state  as  possible 
consistent  with  keeping  them  under  con- 
trol, and  are  not  subjected  to  any  of  the 
domesticating  influences  of  the  other  cattle 
on  the  ranch.  They  are  trained  solely 
for  the  j)urpose  of  fighting,  and  for  each 
Sunday's  battle  eight  or  ten  of  them  are 
brought  to  the  city,  and  it  is  not  uncom- 
mon that  bulls  which  seem  to  be  among 

76 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

the  most  ferocious  at  home  play  the 
coward  when  they  enter  the  ring. 

The  first  bull  was  ready  for  battle  from 
the  start.  He  was  at  first  completely 
bewildered  by  the  strange  sj^ectacle,  and 
whirled  around  the  centre  of  the  ring  w4th 
great  raj^idity,  evidently  undecided  where 
he  would  begin  the  fight. 

The  bull  is  first  engaged  by  the  most 
skilful  manipulation  of  the  capes,  which 
are  lined  with  red,  and  at  which  he  will 
make  a  fierce  dash.  A  very  singular  feat- 
ure of  the  bull-fight  is  that  in  no  case  does 
the  bull  rush  at  the  man,  but  always  at  the 
cape.  It  is  therefore  comparatively  easy 
for  the  man  flying  the  cape  to  escape  the 
dashes  of  the  bull.  His  only  danger  is 
til  at  after  the  bull  has  passed  the  cape  he 
may  turn  and  get  the  fighter  at  a  disad- 
vantage. But  they  are  all  very  expert, 
and  if  in  danger  from  the  second  attack 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

they  fly  to  the  edge  of  the  ring,  where  a 
fence  of  some  five  feet  in  height  separates 
a  wide  passage  between  the  audience  and 
the  ring. 

The  first  bull  dashed  at  the  fighter's 
cape,  and  after  he  had  passed  it,  turned 
upon  the  fighter,  who  escaped  by  jumping 
the  inner  fence  into  the  passage.  But  the 
bull  leaped  the  fence  after  him,  which 
compelled  the  fighter  to  seek  safety  by 
mounting  the  outer  fence.  In  a  little  while 
the  bull  ran  around  the  passage  to  the 
entrance  into  the  rino;  and  resumed  the 
battle.  Soon  after  the  combat  began,  the 
picadors,  who  were  mounted  on  blindfolded 
horses,  rode  up  to  the  bull  and  challenged 
him  to  battle.  This  challenge  was  promjotly 
accepted  by  the  bull.  During  the  fight  he 
suffered  a  spear-thrust  from  one  of  the 
riders,  but  he  tumbled  horse  and  rider 
over  in   a   heap  and  vaulted   over   them. 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

The  rider  escaped,  but  the  horse  was  fatally 
wounded.  Another  horse  took  his  place, 
and  the  two  picadors  offered  battle  to  the 
bull  at  every  stage ;  and  this  was  done  with 
the  full  knowledge  that  the  bull  had  every 
opportunity  to  kill  the  horse,  with  a  likeli- 
hood of  injury  to  the  rider.  During  the 
entire  performance  eight  horses  were  killed 
and  dragged  from  the  ring,  and  one  of  the 
riders  was  seriously  injured. 

The  bull  was  by  this  time  mad  enough 
to  fight  all  creation.  He  had  suffered  no 
injury  beyond  the  irritating  dart  that  had 
been  plunged  into  him  when  he  entered 
the  ring  and  the  spearing  he  had  received 
from  the  mounted  picadors.  The  bugler 
then  sounded  the  order  for  the  banderilleros 
to  enter  the  conflict.  They  were  without 
capes  or  means  of  defence.  Each  held 
in  his  hands  a  number  of  banderillas, — a 
sharp  barbed  dart,  decorated  with   fancy- 

79 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

colored   ribbons.      It   is   their  mission   to 
watch  an  opportunity  while  the  capadores 
are  distracting  the  attention  of  the  bull  to 
plunge   these  darts   into   the   neck  of  the 
bull   near  the   shoulder.     It  is  really  the 
most  perilous  of  all  the  duties  of  the  bull- 
fighter, and  some  of  them  made  very  nar- 
row escapes.      If  one  succeeds  in  placing 
two  of  his  darts  in  the  bull's  shoulders  he 
is   cheered   vociferously  by  the   audience, 
but  it  is  not  common  for  that  measure  of 
success  to  be  attained.     It  often  requires 
repeated  efforts  to  hurl  them  at  all,  as  they 
must  be  near  the  bull,  and  just  when  the 
opportunity  is  presented  the  safety  of  the 
fighter  often  requires  him  to  make  a  swift 
retreat.     The  first  bull  was  a  difiicult  cus- 
tomer to  deal  with,  and  only  one  of  the 
banderilleros  succeeded  in  landing  two  of 
his  darts  in  the  neck  of  the  animal,  but  all 
were  required  to  make  the  effort  and  plant 

80 


TO   THE    PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

at  least  one  dart  in  the  flesh  of  the  buIL 
These  darts  enter  for  two  or  three  inches, 
and  are  hekl  in  position  by  their  barbed 
attachment.  They  are  nearly  two  feet 
long,  and  the  bull  was  driven  to  frenzy, 
as  he  whirled  around  in  the  combat,  by 
these  long,  barbed  instruments  swinging 
wildly  over  his  neck,  inflicting  intolerable 
jDain. 

When  the  work  of  the  banderilleros  was 
finished,  the  bugle  sounded  again,  and  the 
matador  was  summoned  to  finish  the  fight 
with  his  sword.  He  was  received  with 
shouts  of  applause,  to  which  he  responded 
by  bowing  and  walking  around  the  ring, 
ending  in  paying  his  respects  to  some  dis- 
tinguished visitor,  to  whom  he  proposed  to 
dedicate  his  achievement.  He  had  in  his 
left  hand  the  muleta,  or  red  rag  of  the 
Spanish  bull-fight,  which  is  used  only  in 
the   final  combat.     In  his  right  hand  he 

6  81 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


held  a  perfectly  straight,  sharp-pointed, 
and  keen-edged  sword,  and  he  must  kill 
the  bull,  when  the  opportunity  is  pre- 
sented, by  a  single  stroke  of  the  sword,  by 
driving  it  into  the  bull's  shoulder  to  sever 
the  spinal  cord,  or  by  directly  piercing  the 
heart.  This  thrust  cannot  be  made  unless 
the  bull  is  in  a  charging  attitude,  as  he 
then  lowers  his  head  and  exposes  his 
shoulders  to  the  matador. 

At  this  point  of  the  fight  the  bull  was 
much  exhausted,  thus  somewhat  lessening 
the  danger  of  the  final  act  of  the  drama. 
But  the  bull  was  game,  and  was  kept  busy 
by  the  capadores  until  he  could  be  gotten 
into  position  for  the  final  thrust.  He  made 
charge  after  charge  at  the  capes,  but  finally 
was  brought  into  position,  when  the  mata- 
dor, then  at  a  distance  of  six  or  eight  feet 
from  the  bull,  ran  up  to  him,  made  his 
thrust,  and  escaped  before  the  bull  could 


82 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

charge  liim.  The  audience  applauded  tu- 
mukuously,  because  he  had  done  his  brutal 
work  in  an  artistic  manner.  The  bull 
immediately  began  to  totter  on  his  feet, 
and  in  a  little  time  fell  to  his  knees.  He 
was  game,  hoAvever,  even  in  the  agony  of 
death,  and  rose  to  his  feet  again  and  made 
several  desperate  lunges  at  his  foes,  but  he 
dropped  again,  and,  although  he  struggled 
desperately  to  rise,  finally  turned  upon  his 
side.  His  heart  had  not  been  pierced,  and 
death  was  not  likely  to  come  for  some 
time,  so  the  "  stroke  of  mercy,"  as  it  is 
called,  was  given  by  the  cachetero  with  a 
short  dagger,  who  made  a  quick  thrust 
between  the  horns  that  convulsed  the  bull 
for  a  moment,  and  he  was  dead. 

The  mules  then  came  to  their  work  of 
dragging  him  out  of  the  ring,  and  imme- 
diately thereafter  a  line  of  battle  Avas 
formed    for   the   second    bull.      When    he 

83 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

entered  the  ring  he  was  not  only  of  a  more 
nervous  temperament  than  the  one  who  had 
just  given  his  life  for  the  amusement  of  the 
people,  but  he  had  very  long  and  sharp 
horns,  and  all  the  fighters  approached  him 
with  great  caution.  He  was  quicker  in 
movement  than  any  of  the  other  bulls 
which  entered  the  ring  during  the  fight, 
and  whenever  he  made  a  dash  he  cleared 
that  side  of  the  ring  of  all  the  fighters. 
No  two  bulls,  I  am  told,  fight  exactly  alike. 
Some  will  make  short  dashes  and  others 
long  dashes.  The  skirmish-line  of  the 
battle  is  a  study  on  the  part  of  the  fighters 
to  ascertain  the  exact  fighting  methods  of 
the  bull.  On  several  occasions  the  fighters 
in  front  of  him  narrowly  escaj^ed,  but  even 
with  this  nervous  and  quick  action  of  the 
bull  he  had  the  tactical  defect  that  is  com- 
mon to  all  bulls  in  the  ring-fight :  he  did 
not   charge   to  a  finish.     When    the  bull 

84 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

endano-ers  the  one  who  is  immediatelv  en- 
gaged  with  him,  the  capadores  rush  in 
and  divert  him,  as  the  bull  is  always  ready- 
to  turn  from  a  man  to  fight  a  red  cape. 
He  was  game  for  more  than  half  the  battle, 
but  as  his  strength  weakened  his  aggres- 
sive qualities  failed  him,  and  in  the  last 
part  of  his  fight  he  exhibited  none  of  the 
courageous  features  of  his  predecessor. 
There  was  little  or  no  variation  in  this 
conflict  from  what  I  have  detailed  in  the 
first.  He  was  killed  by  another  mata- 
dor, at  a  single  thrust  of  the  sword,  and 
dropped  almost  instantly  when  struck. 

Tlie  third  bull  was  then  turned  into  the 
ring,  and  looked  to  be  the  most  formidable 
of  all,  as  he  was  certainly  two  hundred  or 
three  hundred  pounds  heavier  than  either 
of  the  two  which  had  preceded  him,  and 
when  he  rushed  into  the  ring,  having  re- 
ceived the  irritating  dart  just  as  he  entered, 

85 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

he  looked  like  a  very  formidable  and 
vicious  foe,  but  when  the  fighters  closed  in 
on  him  he  became  utterly  cowed  and 
showed  no  fighting  qualities  whatever. 
The  mounted  picador  rode  right  up  with 
the  nose  of  the  horse  against  the  bull  and 
struck  him  with  the  spear,  but  he  refused 
to  charge,  and  his  bugle  sounded  the  order 
for  retiring  the  bull.  He  saved  his  life  by 
refusing  battle. 

The  fight  thus  continued  until  eight 
bulls  were  killed,  but  after  the  first  one 
there  was  really  not  a  fight  that  could  be 
dignified  by  the  expression.  The  bulls 
would  make  a  few  charges,  but  soon  ap- 
preciated the  hopelessness  of  the  conflict 
and  practically  gave  it  up,  much  to  the 
annoyance  of  the  bull-fighters  and  to  the 
utter  disgust  of  the  audience.  They 
howled  themselves  hoarse  in  Spanish  that  I 
could  not  understand  at  the  failure  of  the 

86 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

bulls  to  give  battle,  evidently  believing  that 
better  bulls  should  have  been  furnished. 

The  audience  was  always  on  the  side  of 
the  heroic,  whether  it  was  the  fighter  or  the 
bull.  One  matador,  who  had  not  a  fierce 
bull  to  contend  v\^ith,  made  three  thrusts 
at  the  bull  before  he  seriously  wounded 
him,  his  sword  only  partially  penetrating 
the  animal,  and  being  soon  thrown  out  by 
his  violent  motions.  This  awkward  work 
of  the  matador  aroused  the  indignation  of 
the  audience  to  the  highest  pitch,  and 
instead  of  applauding  him  they  howled 
and  jeered  at  him.  It  was  his  business, 
however,  to  complete  the  work,  and  with 
the  fourth  effort  he  thrust  the  sword  to  the 
hilt,  but  penetrated  the  lungs  instead  of 
the  heart,  as  was  evidenced  from  the  im- 
mediate and  profuse  bleeding  of  the  bull 
at  the  nose  and  mouth.  The  bull  at  once 
tottered  and  soon  fell,  but  he  died  with  the 

87 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

hisses  instead  of  the  cheers  of  the  audience 
for  the  matador. 

Such  was  the  second  feature  of  the  Sun- 
day life  in  the  capital  of  Mexico,  and  the 
large  assembly  was  comjDOsed  mainly  of  the 
peo^^le  who  had  been  at  their  altars  but  a 
few  hours  before.  The  bull-ring  is  now 
opposed  by  a  considerable  class  of  the 
better  element  of  Mexico,  but  it  is  so 
strongly  entrenched  in  the  admiration  of 
the  Mexican  people  that  there  seems  to 
be  no  prospect  of  its  early  abolition.  It 
was  attempted  a  few  years  ago,  but  the 
overwhelming  sentiment  against  the  de- 
struction of  the  bull-ring  compelled  the 
national  authorities  to  abandon  the  idea. 

As  the  bull-fight  was  exhibited  in  the 
early  days  of  chivalry,  considering  the 
civilization  of  that  time,  I  can  understand 
why  it  was  enjoyed  by  the  people.  It  was 
a  barbarous  age,  and  bull-fights  were  inter- 

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TO   THE    PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

esting  only  as  they  were  made  barbarous, 
not  only  in  the  death  of  the  bulls,  but  in 
the  death  or  crippling  of  the  bull-fighters. 
But  the  bull-fight  of  to-day  in  Mexico  is 
only  a  grotesque  comedy  of  the  chivalry 
and  heroism  which  inaugurated  it  centu- 
ries ago.  It  is  simply  cheap  and  often 
cowardly  brutality,  but  it  will  remain  as 
an  institution  in  Mexico  until  a  better 
education  prevails  among  her  people,  and 
of  that  I  see  little  prospect. 

I  saw  this  fight  because  I  wanted  to 
see  the  Mexican  people  as  they  are  in 
the  enjoyment  of  their  chief  amusement, 
but  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  circumstances 
or  conditions  which  could  induce  me  to 
witness  a  repetition  of  it. 

The  bull-fight  of  the  afternoon  is  ap^Dar- 
ently  the  logical  sequel  to  the  morning 
service  at  the  altar,  and  the  Monte  Carlo  of 
Mexico  is  the  closing  amusement.     About 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

four  miles  from  the  heart  of  the  city  is  a 
most  beautiful  establishment,  known  as 
Tivoli  Cartagena.  It  is  in  a  green  and 
heartsome  plain,  just  below  the  beautiful 
castle  of  Chapultepec.  It  is  a  most  elabo- 
rate establishment,  with  a  beautiful  grove 
in  the  centre  decorated  with  flowers,  and 
with  everything  to  entice  the  visitor,  even 
if  not  inclined  to  try  the  roulette  and 
monte  tables. 

Elegant  concerts  are  common  in  the 
evening  until  ten  o'clock,  and  the  Mexican 
Sunday  always  ends  with  an  immense 
throng  of  people  who  visit  this  establish- 
ment to  enjoy  its  beauty  and  fragrance  or 
to  try  the  chances  of  the  game.  There  are 
two  large  main  gambling-rooms  on  the 
first  and  second  floors,  with  tables  covering 
their  entire  length  excepting  the  room  re- 
quired for  the  players.  Here  are  men  and 
women  of  almost  every  age,  trying   their 


90 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

luck  at  the  gaming-tables,  and  among 
them  an  obvious  mino-lino;  of  the  clemi- 
monde.  Both  rooms  were  crowded,  and 
hundreds  of  players  were  at  the  table, 
women  taking  their  places,  regardless  of 
acquaintance,  and  devoting  themselves  in- 
tently to  the  game.  The  tables  were  cov- 
ered with  great  stacks  of  Mexican  dollars, 
all  new  and  fresh  from  the  mint,  but  the 
large  stakes  are  paid  in  Mexican  paper. 

The  extent  of  the  game  may  be  under- 
stood from  the  fact  that  the  authorities  of 
the  City  of  Mexico  receive  from  the  proprie- 
tor twenty-eight  thousand  dollars  a  month 
for  the  exclusive  privilege  of  maintaining 
gaming  esta])lishments  in  the  city.  The 
owner  is  immensely  rich,  and  his  profession 
does  not  give  him  the  social  and  political 
ostracism  that  he  incurs  in  our  better 
civilization. 

Every  Sunday  until  long  after  midnight 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

at  times  the  crowd  goes  out  to  this  magnifi- 
cent gambling-house.  The  cars  are  con- 
stantly crowded  with  people  going  to  try 
their  luck  or  enjoying  the  evening,  and 
other  crowds  returning,  a  few  rejoicing  at 
their  good  fortune,  the  many  bewailing 
their  ill-luck,  and  with  a  large  proportion 
of  them  dead  broke.  The  regular  trolley 
cars  run  to  the  city  until  eleven  o'clock, 
but  sjDecial  cai's  are  held  there  to  convey 
home  those  who  may  linger  with  the  game 
until  after  railroad  schedule  hours. 

In  these  three  great  institutions  of  the 
City  of  Mexico  you  see  the  Mexican 
people  as  they  are.  Most  of  them  are 
devotedly  religious  in  their  way,  and  in  a 
very  bad  way.  They  are  scrupulous  in 
the  observance  of  the  ceremonies  of  their 
religion,  but  the  bowing  worshijoper  at  the 
altar  in  the  morning  may  pick  your  pocket 
under  the  very  shadow  of  his  altar,  and  he 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

will  be  most  enthusiastic  at  the  bull-fight 
in  the  afternoon,  and  round  out  his  ob- 
servance of  Sunday  at  the  gaming-table. 
Such  is  the  story  in  brief  of  a  Sunday  in 
the  capital  of  Mexico. 


'ji 


CHAPULTEPEC  AND 
GUADALUPE 

City  op  Mexico,  February  5,  1901. 

Of  all  the  many  picturesque  scenes 
immediately  about  this  city  which  invite 
the  tourist,  Chapulte2)ec  is  in  every  way 
the  grandest.  It  is  not  only  grand  in 
natural  beauty,  but  it  is  richest  in  historic 
and  legendary  lore  of  any  of  the  many 
beautiful  and  memorable  places  around  the 
capital. 

It  stands  like  a  great,  irregular,  and 
somewhat  oval  pyramid,  about  two  miles 
from  the  city,  with  the  rich  and  fresh  Val- 
ley of  Mexico  completely  encircling  it.  It 
starts  on  the  level  plain  on  the  west  with  a 
gentle  elevation,  and  gradually  increases 
in  height  until  it  reaches  its  northern  ex- 
tremity, where  it  terminates  abruptly  in  an 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

almost  impassable  cliff,  presenting  a  rugged 
rocky  face  to  welcome  the  a2:>proaching 
visitor.  On  its  summit  the  historical 
palace  of  the  Montezumas  begins  at  the 
very  edge  of  the  front  cliff  and  extends 
westward  probably  a  distance  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet,  where  it  adjoins  the 
military  school  of  Mexico,  corresponding 
with  our  West  Point,  and  in  which  there 
are  now  nearly  three  hundred  cadets. 

The  hill  is  ascended  by  an  excellent  road, 
forming  almost  a  complete  circle  to  reach 
the  official  palace,  that  can  be  entered  by 
a  foreigner  only  on  a  card  issued  by  his 
ambassador.  Our  American  ambassador. 
General  Clayton,  and  his  son,  Lieutenant 
Clayton,  who  is  military  attache  to  the 
legation,  were  very  generous  in  their  cour- 
tesy, and  promptly  furnished  the  party 
with  the  necessary  credentials. 

The  great   causeway  from    the    city    to 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Cliapultepec — the  Paseo  de  la  Reforma — is 
the  fashionable  drive  of  Mexico.  It  is 
about  two  hundred  feet  in  width,  but  the 
main  causeway  is  narrowed  by  double  rows 
of  trees  extending  along  its  entire  length, 
presenting  perpetual  verdure.  It  has  al- 
ways been  one  of  the  chief  causeways  of  the 
city,  even  before  the  Spanish  conquest,  and 
leads  to  what  is  commonly  called  the  Hall 
of  the  Montezumas,  which  has  been  the 
palace  of  emperors,  kings,  viceroys,  and 
presidents  for  nearly  six  hundred  years ; 
but  it  was  not  until  poor  Carlotta  came  to 
grace  the  palace  of  Chapultej^ec  that  this 
great  causeway  was  made  one  of  the  most 
delightful  highways  in  any  city.  It  was 
by  her  determined  efforts  that  it  was 
made  not  only  a  beautiful  causeway,  but 
the  centre  of  the  embellishment  of  the 
capital. 

Starting  from  a  circle  at  a  central  point 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

in  the  city,  in  which  is  an  equestrian  statue 
of  Charles  IV.,  thence  all  along  the  broad 
highway  are  statues  of  men  who  have  made 
records  in  the  history  of  ]\Iexico.  This 
feature  of  embellishment  is  not  yet  com- 
plete, but  for  two-thirds  of  the  way  there 
are  beautiful  statues  every  few  hundred 
feet  on  either  side,  and  they  represent 
every  phase  of  Mexican  history.  Promi- 
nent among  these  statues  are  the  more 
distinguished  Aztecs,  presented  in  their 
Indian  plumes  and  trappings,  and  heroes 
and  statesmen  are  intermingled  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  progress  of  civilization  in  the 
land  of  the  Aztecs. 

This  great  causeway  comes  up  squarely 
in  front  of  the  cliffs  of  Cha^Dultepec,  and 
thence  passes  around  on  either  side,  and 
every  evening,  especially  on  Sunday  even- 
ing, it  is  crowded  with  equipages  and 
equestrians,  from    the  descendants  of  the 

7  97 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

old  Spanish  and  Mexican  grandees  down 
to  the  cheapest  Mexican  who  can  mount 
a  broncho. 

Arriving  at  the  base  of  the  cliff,  the 
ascent  is  easy  by  a  long  road  that  winds 
around  to  reach  the  summit.  You  first 
come  in  contact  with  the  Mexican  cadets 
and  their  officers.     They  are  an  unusually 

» 

bright  and  active  lot  of  young  men,  almost 
wholly  Mexicans,  or  of  the  mingled  race 
of  Spanish  and  Indian.  Only  here  and 
there  among  them  did  I  notice  a  full- 
blooded  Indian.  On  reachino;  the  2;ate 
that  opens  into  the  palace  grounds  the 
visitor  is  divested  of  cameras  and  every- 
thing that  might  tempt  to  desecration, 
and  an  official  guide  takes  charge  of  the 
party. 

On  the  northern  front  of  the  cliff, 
where  the  palace  is  entered,  there  is  the 
most  beautiful  view  I  have  ever  seen  in 

98 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

any  of  the  many  mountain  valleys  I  have 
traversed.  A  few  miles  away  the  City  of 
Mexico  nestles  in  the  plain  that  was  a  vast 
lake  in  the  days  of  the  Aztecs,  and  its 
unbroken  lines  of  white  houses  loom  up 
in  beautiful  contrast  with  the  green  fields 
about.  To  the  left  and  close  by  is  what  is 
known  as  the  battle-field  of  Molino  del 
Key,  the  scene  of  the  last  struggle  between 
the  army  of  Scott  and  the  Mexicans,  as  it 
resulted  in  the  successful  assault  uj^on 
Chapultepec. 

Still  farther  off  to  the  left  stands  the 
historic  church  known  as  Guadalupe  Hi- 
dalgo, with  its  little  village  clustering 
about  it,  and  immediately  in  front  to  the 
north  we  have  a  magnificent  view  of  Popo- 
catapetl  and  its  larger  of  girth  but  more 
rudely  fashioned  twin  sister,  Iztaccihuatl, 
with  their  eternal  caps  of  snow. 

Visitors    are  j)ermitted  to  pass  through 

99 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

all  the  various  rooms  of  the  palace, 
and  it  is  a  most  interesting  and  in- 
structive entertainment.  All  the  ajDart- 
ments  present  the  appearance  of  regal 
grandeur,  and  some  of  the  richest  decora- 
tions in  fresco  were  made  under  the  imme- 
diate direction  of  Carlotta.  It  is  the  only- 
place  outside  of  the  museum  Avhere  you 
may  find  relics  of  the  lost  empire  of  Maxi- 
milian. In  almost  every  room  you  can 
see  some  vestige  of  the  new  and  imperial 
embellishments  to  tell  the  story  of  his  sad 
reign.  They  contain  not  only  his  mono- 
gram, but  the  imperial  crown.  In  one  of 
the  anterooms  are  two  chairs  which  be- 
longed to  Cortez,  but  these  are  all  that  can 
be  found  as  relics  of  the  ancient  ruler. 

President  Diaz  makes  his  home  in  this 
palace  during  three  months  of  the  summer 
season,  and  his  family  rooms  are  a  grand 
suite,    including    reception-room,    boudoir, 

100 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

chamber,  dining-room,  smoking-room,  and 
card-room,  all  beautifully  furnished  and 
embellished  in  elegant  taste. 

On  entering  the  second  story  a  most 
beautiful  scene  is  presented.  The  first 
story  of  the  palace  is  built  around  the 
summit  of  the  cliff,  leaving  the  summit  to 
remain  and  extend  up  to  the  level  with  the 
second  story,  where  it  has  been  converted 
into  a  delightful  flower  garden  that  is  as 
fragrant  as  it  is  charming.  On  one  of  the 
stairways  the  entire  wall  and  ceiling  are 
decorated  with  coats-of-arms  of  all  the 
varied  rulers  of  Mexico.  The  frescoing 
and  painting  of  the  walls  are  in  high  style 
of  art,  presenting  the  richest  and  grandest 
embellishment  that  can  be  found  anywhere 
in  the  City  of  Mexico.  Every  room  and 
every  passage-way  in  this  great  palace 
gives  some  new  attraction,  and  I  know  of 
no   more    interesting    place   to   study   the 

101 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

civilization  of  Mexico  than  in  this  grand 
structure,  that  dates  back  to  the  first  of  the 
Montezumas  and  was  the  home  of  the  last 
of  the  Aztec  rulers. 

On  the  summit  of  the  building  is  the  na- 
tional observatory,  from  which  is  obtained  a 
most  sublime  view  of  the  Valley  of  Mexico. 
Surrounding  the  cliff  of  Chaj^ultepec  on 
every  side  there  are  magnificent  trees  and 
shrubs  and  flowers,  and  in  the  park  close 
by  there  are  gigantic  cypresses  which 
antedate  even  the  days  of  Montezuma. 
Among  them  is  one  immense  tree  fully 
twelve  feet  in  diameter,  and  giving  evident 
signs  of  decay,  where,  as  tradition  tells  the 
story,  both  Montezuma  and  Cortez  wept 
over  their  defeats.  On  the  rocks  which 
fringe  the  surfiice  of  the  cliffs  are  hiero- 
glyphics which  have  never  been  deciphered 
by  our  archseologists,  and  on  the  plains 
below  are  the  fragments  of  the  old  aque- 

102 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

ducts  constructed  by  the  Spanish  viceroys 
to  supply  the  city  with  water. 

Since  the  castle  of  Chapultepec  has  been 
the  home  of  Mexican  rulers  it  has  wit- 
nessed many  bloody  and  barbarous  con- 
flicts. It  was  there  that  Montezuma  first 
heard  the  guns  of  Cortez,  who  startled  the 
Aztecs  by  his  mounted  soldiers,  at  first  pre- 
sumed by  the  Aztecs  to  be  demi-gods,  and 
the  horse  and  rider  one  creature,  as  horses 
were  until  then  unknown  among  them. 
The  first  sound  of  cannon  that  ever  shocked 
the  Aztec  nerve  was  when  Cortez  ap- 
proached the  city,  and  finally  entered  it, 
after  the  capture  of  Montezuma,  on  what 
is  now  the  great  causeway  leading  from 
the  city  to  Guadalupe  Hidalgo.  The 
Aztec  city  at  that  day  was  erected  on  piles 
or  mounds  to  lift  the  houses  above  the  water, 
and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Cortez  was  to 
destroy  the  temples,  altars,  and  homes  of 

103 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

the  Aztecs,  filling  up  the  waterways  with 
them. 

From  this  grand  eminence  the  ruler  of 
Mexico  heard  the  first  hoarse  thunders  of 
General  Scott's  guns,  as  they  moved  from 
Churubusco  to  Molino  del  Rey,  from  which 
base  Scott  bombarded  Chapultepec,  killing 
fourteen  cadets, — as  there  were  only  cadets 
there  to  defend  it, — and  the  fallen  boy 
Mexican  warriors  of  that  conflict  are  buried 
in  a  common  grave  at  the  base  of  the  clifi\, 
with  a  beautiful  monument  erected  over 
them. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  later  President 
Juarez,  the  great  Indian  ruler  of  Mexico, 
was  compelled  to  flee  from  his  palace  and 
capital  because  of  the  decisive  victories  won 
by  the  French  troops  who  were  the  fore- 
runners of  Maximilian.  After  the  brief 
story  of  the  luckless  empire  had  been  re- 
corded in  deeply  crimsoned  chapters  in  the 

104 


TO    THE    PACIFIC    AND   MEXICO 

annals  of  Mexico,  Juarez  was  welcomed 
back  to  Ills  palace,  and  since  then  Chapul- 
tepec  lias  been  the  summer  home  of  the 
Presidents  of  the  republic. 

There  are  in  Mexico  a  great  many  build- 
ings of  historic  interest,  but  there  is  not 
one,  I  believe,  that  equals  Chapultejjec. 
The  original  palace  of  Montezuma  has  al- 
most, if  not  entirely,  disappeared  under 
the  stride  of  improvement  in  enlarging 
and  beautifying  this  home  of  the  Mexican 
rulers,  but  there  will  always  cluster  about 
it  the  most  sacred  memories  of  every  civi- 
lization that  Mexico  has  ever  known,  with 
the  single  exception  of  the  Toltecs'.  They 
ruled  here  before  the  Aztecs  became  masters 
of  the  country,  and  are  the  earliest  people 
of  whom  any  history  has  been  preserved, 
and  that  most  imperfectly.  But  not  only 
here,  but  in  many  places  throughout 
Mexico,  there  are  positive  evidences  of  the 

105 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


varied  standards  of  civilization  of  the 
rugged  and  heroic  race  conquered  by 
Cortez. 

Leaving  Chapultepec,  the  tourist  natu- 
rally turns  to  Guadalupe,  which  is  accej^ted 
by  the  Mexicans  as  the  holiest  shrine  of 
the  nation,  and  which  is  replete  with  the 
most  romantic  legends.  My  visit  to  this 
interesting  place  this  morning  was  on  a 
double  holiday — a  civil  holiday  as  the  an- 
niversary of  the  adoj^tion  of  the  Mexican 
constitution,  and  a  religious  holiday  in 
memory  of  St.  Felipe.  Mexicans  have 
many  holidays,  and  hugely  enjoy  them. 
Guadalupe  is  some  seven  or  eight  miles 
distant  from  the  centre  of  the  city,  and  is 
reached  by  the  old  causeway,  once  studded 
with  waterways,  by  which  Cortez  entered 
the  city  with  Montezuma  as  prisoner.  It 
is  not  now  a  fashionable  highway,  and 
there   is    little    on    its    line    to    interest   a 

106 


TO   THE    PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

traveller.  Immediately  southeast  of  it  is 
what  was  once  a  much  more  important 
causeway,  but  now  occupied  by  a  railroad, 
on  which  there  are  twelve  shrines  at  stated 
distances  between  the  city  and  Guadalupe. 
These  shrines  are  beautifully  constructed, 
although  now  crumbling  under  the  wastage 
of  centuries.  Their  purpose  was  to  give 
the  wayfarer  an  opportunity  in  passing  by 
to  worshij)  at  the  shrine  of  his  favorite 
saint. 

When  the  town  of  Guadalupe  was 
reached  there  were  many  evidences  of 
activity  among  the  people.  Being  a  re- 
ligious as  well  as  a  civil  holiday,  the 
church  had  an  unusual  assemblage  of 
worshippers.  Before  entering  the  main 
church  the  crowd  is  attracted  to  the  little 
but  beautiful  chapel  that  covers  the  "  Holy 
Well,"  and  the  faithful  all  believe  the 
legend    that    this    spring,    which    bubbles 

107 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

up  in  an  immense  volume  of  clear,  cold 
water,  had  its  origin  from  the  personal 
appearance  of  the  Virgin.  The  water  is 
regarded  as  sacred  by  all.  The  well  is 
just  inside  the  door  of  the  chapel  and  is 
passed  by  those  who  enter  for  service. 
It  was  densely  crowded  by  all  classes  and 
conditions  of  Mexicans,  obtaining  the  holy 
water  in  bottles,  pitchers,  and  jugs,  all  of 
whom  approach  the  well  with  the  utmost 
reverence  and  with  uncovered  heads. 

Entering  the  chapel,  the  visitor  sees  a 
beautifully  decorated  altar.  It  is  small, 
but  every  part  of  it  is  most  exquisitely  em- 
bellished, evidently  without  regard  to  cost. 
There  was  no  service  in  the  chapel  when 
I  visited  it,  and  I  hastened  to  the  main 
church,  which  is  a  most  imposing  structure. 
Its  erection  was  begun  in  1574,  and  it  was 
finally  dedicated  in  1629.  Around  this 
large  and  beautifully  constructed  church, 

108 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

by  the  universal  faith  of  its  worshippers, 
and  generally  throughout  the  entire  re- 
public, the  most  sublime  legends  cluster. 
It  was  built,  as  they  believe  and  teach, 
because  the  Virgin  appeared  in  person 
nearly  five  centuries  ago,  and  demanded 
that  a  temple  in  her  honor  should  be 
reared  at  this  place.  It  is  the  only  place 
on  the  continent  where  the  personal  ap- 
pearance of  the  Virgin  is  claimed ;  and  it 
is  distinctly  asserted  by  the  inscription  on 
the  slab  in  front  of  the  altar  as  follows  : 
"  This  is  the  true  spot  where  was  found 
the  Most  Holy  Virgin  beneath  a  maguey, 
by  the  Chief  Don  Juan  Aguila,  in  the 
year  1540,  where  she  said  to  him  at  the 
time  of  her  appearance  to  him,  that  he 
should  search  for  her." 

With  such  mingled  romance  and  sanctity 
attaching  to  a  church,  among  a  people  who 
are  thoroughly  devoted  to  the  ceremonies 

109 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

of  their  worship,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  church  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  has  been 
made  one  of  the  richest  shrines  of  the 
world.  The  entire  massive  balustrade 
around  the  altar  and  on  both  sides  of  the 
double  stairway  reaching  from  the  floor 
to  the  altar  is  of  solid  silver,  requiring 
twenty-six  tons  of  the  precious  metal  to 
construct  it. 

In  one  of  the  many  revolutions  in 
Mexico,  when  the  church  party  was  de- 
feated, the  solid  silver  railings  and  balus- 
trades and  lamps  were  taken  from  the 
church  by  confiscation,  but  they  were 
soon  replaced,  and  to-day  the  church  of 
Guadalupe  Hidalgo  has  a  vastly  greater 
amount  of  solid  silver  furnishings  than 
any  temple  in  the  Western  World.  It  is 
an  immense  structure  and  most  interesting 
to  the  student  at  every  step.  Its  walls  are 
decorated  by  magnificent    paintings,  most 

110 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

of  them  bearing  more  or  less  directly  on 
the  personal  appearance  of  the  Virgin  at 
that  place,  and  between  these  paintings  are 
tablets  in  varied  styles  of  elegance,  which 
tell  some  story  of  the  progress  of  the 
church  and  of  its  special  sanctity  as  the 
holiest  of  all  the  shrines. 

I  went  to  enter  the  church  just  at  noon- 
day, when  the  hour  of  twelve  was  tolled, 
and  the  great  bells  of  the  towers  rang  out 
their  loudest  peals.  As  the  bells  began 
their  music  loud  reports  of  cannon  were 
heard,  doubtless  in  celebration  of  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution  of  the  repub- 
lic, while  the  bells  were  commemorating 
the  natal  day  of  St.  Felipe. 

I  never  witnessed  such  abject  devotion  as 
is  exhibited  by  most  of  the  many  wor- 
shippers. Poor,  ragged,  shoeless  men, 
women,   and   children  were  mingled  with 

men   and  women  of  evident  position  and 

III 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

culture,  and  there  were  at  all  times  a  num- 
ber of  women  crawling  on  their  knees 
from  the  door  of  the  church  up  to  the  altar 
with  holy  candles  in  their  hands.  As  soon 
as  a  worshipper  entered,  he  or  she  would 
pass  to  some  particular  seat  in  the  church, 
then  kneel  down,  after  crossing  the  face 
and  breast,  according  to  the  usual  form  of 
worship,  and  would  long  remain  in  the 
attitude  of  prayer.  I  noticed  some  who 
kneeled  for  more  than  half  an  hour  and 
others  who  would  kneel  when  entering,  rise 
soon  thereafter,  and  later  would  kneel  again, 
as  if  returning  to  the  most  sacred  devotion. 
I  remained  an  hour  to  witness  this  interest- 
ing ceremony,  and  to  view  the  beautiful 
spectacle  presented  by  this  most  richly 
ornamented  and  palatial  place  of  worship, 
and  in  all  that  time,  although  there  was 
a  priest  with  an  attendant  at  the  altar, 
he  did  not  utter  a  word  to  the  audience. 

112 


-      ^    ' 


r 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

This  great  church  is  at  the  base  of  a 
steep  cliff,  nearly  half  the  height  of  Clia- 
pultej^ec,  and  on  its  summit  is  another 
chapel,  around  which  is  one  of  the  most 
noted  cemeteries  of  the  nation,  where  the 
dust  of  Santa  Anna  and  many  other  Mexi- 
can leaders  reposes.  The  country  imme- 
diately about  the  village  of  Guadalupe  is 
green  and  fresh,  and  it  seems  to  have  an  un- 
usually prosj^erous  community.  The  place 
is  also  memorable  because  it  was  here  that 
the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was  made 
in  1848,  that  concluded  the  war  between 
the  United  States  and  Mexico,  and  gave 
us  all  our  important  Western  possessions, 
reaching  from  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
to  the  Pacific.  It  is  regarded  as  the  holy 
of  liolies  by  the  Mexican  people,  who,  as  a 
rule,  are  of  the  religious  faith  that  bows  at 
the  altar  of  Guadalupe,  which  was  created 
by  the  personal  command  of  the  Virgin. 

8  113 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

I  left  the  place  strangely  impressed  with 
the  universal  religious  fervor  of  the  more 
ignorant  and  j^overty-stricken  people  of 
Mexico.  They  are  all  religious  as  they 
understand  it.  High  and  low,  rich  and 
poor,  good  and  bad,  all  are  apparently 
equally  devoted  to  the  observance  of  the 
ceremonies  of  the  church ;  and  not  only 
the  sincerely  and  consistently  religious,  of 
whom  there  are  many,  thus  exhibit  their 
devotion,  but  the  murderer,  the  burglar, 
the  sneak-thief,  the  courtesan,  the  gambler, 
and  every  other  phase  of  the  criminal 
classes  are  scrupulously  religious  in  ob- 
serving the  ceremonies  of  their  faith. 

The  church  rules  here  on  an  entirely 
different  basis  from  what  it  does  in  the 
more  intelligent  countries  of  the  world, 
and  every  condition  and  class  are  taught 
that,  however  abandoned  may  be  the  lives 
of  the  Mexicans,  they  must  be  religionists. 

114 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Gradually  this  condition  will  change,  and 
religion  will  be,  as  in  more  intelligent 
countries,  something  beyond  the  mere  form 
that  here  brings  the  sincere  worshij^pers 
and  the  criminal  in  deed  and  purpose  to 
the  same  altar.  But  while  ignorance  shall 
prevail  to  the  extent  that  it  now  does  in 
this  republic,  the  power  of  the  church  will 
be  largely  through  the  religious  supersti- 
tion of  the  worshippers,  and  bad  as  the 
religion  seems,  it  is  the  best  they  are 
capable  of  accepting. 

Beyond  the  class  that  comes  with  means 
to  develop,  and  intelligence  that  knows 
how  and  where  to  develop,  there  is  nothing 
in  Mexico  to  invite  the  foreigner.  The 
financial  and  industrial  policy  of  Mexico  is 
entirely  different  from  that  of  the  United 
States  and  the  leading  countries  of  the 
world.  The  Mexican  government  main- 
tains a  silver  basis  confessedly  and  avow- 

115 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


edly  because  Mexican  wealth  of  every  kind 
is  produced  on  a  silver  basis  and  sold  on  a 
gold  basis.  The  reason  given  on  every 
hand  for  maintaining  the  silver  policy  is 
that  it  maintains  cheap  labor,  while  the 
products  of  Mexico  command  gold  prices. 
In  other  words,  the  financial  and  industrial 
policy  of  Mexico  is  to  benefit  the  few  at 
the  cost  of  the  laborer  who  gives  wealth  to 
his  employer. 

There  are  many  pleasant  things  in  a 
visit  to  Mexico.  You  know  exactly  how  to 
dress  under  the  changing  conditions  of  tem- 
perature. You  know  that  you  will  not  need 
an  overcoat  from  nine  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing until  five  in  the  evening,  and  that  you 
will  be  certain  to  need  one  at  any  other 
time  of  the  twenty-four  hours.  You  know 
that  you  will  not  need  an  umbrella,  for 
rain  is  one  of  the  impossible  things  at  this 
season   of    the   year;    but    in   driving   or 


116 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


walking  about  the  city  in  the  middle  of  the 
day  or  early  afternoon,  a  sun-shade  or  a 
covered  carriage  is  quite  necessary.  You 
can  count  on  bright  moonlight,  when  the 
moon  is  at  all  in  evidence,  and  upon  sun- 
light throughout  the  entire  day,  excepting 
as  it  may  be  tempered  by  the  mists  of  the 
morning. 

Visitors  from  the  North  should  be  care- 
ful about  their  clothing,  and  not  lay  aside 
their  winter  garments  because  of  the 
scorching  midday  sun,  and  those  who  are 
fond  of  a  good  square  meal  should  have 
their  own  cook  and  car  with  them.  It 
is,  as  I  have  said,  a  very  interesting  and 
instructive  country  for  the  student,  but 
those  who  come  merely  for  the  purpose  of 
pleasure  would  do  well  not  to  come  at  all. 


117 


THE   MUSEUM,   PAWNSHOP, 
AND   THIEVES'   MARKET 

City  op  Mexico,  February  15,  1901. 

The  Mexican  capital  is  distinguished 
from  all  other  cities  in  the  Western  World 
by  its  multitude  of  churches  and  statues. 
You  cannot  visit  any  important  part  of  the 
city  without  observing  statues  of  heroes, 
statesmen,  and  saints,  and  generally  of 
most  artistic  execution. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the 
statues  is  that  of  Charles  lY.  of  Spain. 
It  has  had  rather  a  stormy  career,  as  in 
the  revolutionary  periods  of  Mexico  public 
sentiment  surged  strongly  against  every- 
thing Spanish,  and  it  was  at  times  in  danger 
of  utter  destruction,  but  it  was  finally,  by 
general  consent,  given  the  place  of  honor 

118 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

at  the  beginning  of  the  great  causeway 
leading  to  Chapultepec,  which  is  largely 
embellished  with  statues  on  both  sides. 

Another  of  the  grand  statues  of  the  city 
is  that  of  Columbus,  the  summit  of  the 
pedestal  of  which  is  adorned  with  figures  of 
a  number  of  monks  who  gave  him  aid. 
The  next  grand  statue  on  the  causeway  is 
that  of  Cuauhtemoc,  nephew  of  Montezuma 
II.,  who  strove  to  maintain  the  kingdom  of 
the  Aztecs  after  the  fall  of  his  uncle  until 
he  was  captured  by  Cortez.  The  statue 
does  justice  to  his  heroic  qualities.  He 
died  under  torture  for  refusing  to  give  in- 
formation of  the  hidden  wealth  of  the 
Aztec  capital,  that  had  been  destroyed 
when  Cortez  re-entered  Mexico  and  estab- 
lished his  mastery. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  give  details 
of  the  many  very  beautiful  statues  which 
adorn  the  city  and  which  represent  every 

119 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


phase  of  Aztec,  Spanish,  and  Mexican  life, 
and  every  historic  race  of  the  country  that 
has  been  so  often  convulsed  by  bloody 
conflicts. 

One  statue  that  appeals  to  the  warmest 
affections  of  the  Mexican  people  is  that  on 
the  tomb  of  Juarez,  the  Indian  President, 
who  was  deposed  by  Maximilian  and  who, 
in  turn,  executed  the  Austrian  invader.  It 
stands  in  the  cemetery  of  San  Fernando, 
connected  with  one  of  the  old  churches 
bearing  that  name.  Over  the  grave  of  the 
dust  of  the  President  is  reared  a  most 
beautiful  Grecian  temple,  supported  by 
exquisite  marble  columns,  and  on  the  tomb 
is  a  recumbent  statue  of  Juarez,  claimed  to 
be  one  of  the  most  finished  illustrations  of 
sculpture  in  the  world,  with  his  head  sup- 
ported by  a  female  figure  representing 
Mexican  liberty,  as  Columbia  represents 
freedom  in  the  United  States.     This  little 

]20 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

temple  and  the  tomb  within  it  are  entirely 
covered  with  living  or  artificial  flowers, 
which  are  changed  with  formal  ceremonies 
on  every  anniversary  of  his  birth.  Fresh 
flowers  daily  grace  his  grave,  placed  there 
by  the  affectionate  and  grateful  Mexican 
people,  and  the  varied  beauties  of  the 
structure,  excepting  the  statue,  are  always 
entirely  hidden  by  the  beautiful  interwoven 
immortelles  and  other  floral  tributes. 

Mexico  is  distinguished  not  only  by  the 
grandeur  of  its  statues  and  monuments, 
but  by  a  national  library  containing  two 
hundred  thousand  volumes,  embracing 
many  vellum  and  parchment  books,  where 
the  student  of  history  could  revel  for 
months;  and  the  government  has  its  library 
in  every  department,  including  its  Museum, 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  and  Schools  of 
Engineering  and  of  Law,  and  to  these  may 
be  added  a  free  library  of  many  thousand 

121 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND    MEXICO 

volumes,  that  is  open  every  day  in  the  year 
except  feast  days. 

There  is  also  a  National  School  of  Fine 
Arts,  embracing  many  pictures  of  excep- 
tional value,  but  the  National  Museum  is 
the  place  where  the  interest  of  the  intelli- 
gent visitor  mostly  centres.  There  we 
have  substantially  all  that  is  preserved  of 
the  history  of  the  Indian  people  who  wrote 
their  heroic  records  in  the  early  and  bloody 
history  of  Mexico.  Several  large  rooms 
are  devoted  to  these  works,  which  have 
been  presented  to  the  Museum,  as  required 
by  law,  from  every  State  of  the  republic, 
but  the  most  interesting  of  all  have  been 
recently  found  in  this  city.  No  archaeo- 
logical search  had  been  made  for  them,  but 
in  later  imj)rovements  made  in  the  city 
they  were  discovered  in  the  digging  of 
foundations  and  opening  of  sewers.  It  is 
from    these    recent   discoveries,   all    made 

122 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

within  the  present  century,  and  most  of 
them  within  the  last  two-score  years,  that 
we  have  the  best  records  of  the  Aztec 
civilization  in  the  City  of  Mexico. 

Cortez,  as  I  have  previously  stated, 
destroyed  the  homes  and  temples  of  the 
conquered  Indians,  and  the  monks,  who 
closely  followed  him,  studiously  sought  to 
efface  every  vestige  of  Aztec  history.  They 
were  regarded  as  Pagans, — their  temples  as 
blasphemous, — and  instead  of  preserving 
the  history  of  the  race,  as  could  have  been 
done,  it  is  only  here  and  there  that  statues, 
monoliths,  and  picture-writings  have  been 
preserved.  The  entire  inner  walls  of  a 
large  room  of  the  Museum  are  covered  with 
specimens  of  what  was  evidently  the  high- 
est art  of  preservation  known  to  the  Aztecs. 
They  consist  of  beautiful  pictures  on  fine 
canvas  woven  from  the  maguey  plant,  and 
the  colors  seem  as  fresh  to-day  as  if  painted 

123 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

within  the  present  generation.  These  pic- 
tures tell  the  story  of  Indian  progress,  of 
methods  of  war,  of  worship,  of  sacrifice, 
and  of  everything  pertaining  to  their  ad- 
vancement. 

Among  the  most  curious  of  the  relics  is 
an  old  map  of  the  Aztec  capital,  Tenoch- 
titlan,  on  the  ruins  of  which  this  city  was 
founded,  that  shows  the  main  causeways 
of  the  former  city,  which  have  not  been 
disturbed,  and  exhibits  a  very  high  degree 
of  art.  The  one  room  devoted  to  the 
statues  and  monoliths  of  the  Aztecs  is  a 
study  of  intense  interest.  There  is  the 
sacrificial  stone  of  the  Aztec  temple,  of 
such  huge  proportions  that  it  escaped  de- 
struction mainly  because  its  destruction 
was  next  to  impossible. 

This  stone,  with  the  other  relics  pertain- 
ing to  it,  gives  the  bloody  side  of  Aztec 
civilization.     It  is  in  circular  form,  about 

124 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

ten  feet  in  diameter  and  between  four  and 
five  feet  in  depth,  and  its  rim  is  illustrated 
with  figures,  showing  the  Aztec  chiefs 
dragging  their  victims  to  sacrifice.  In  the 
centre  is  a  basin  to  receive  the  blood  of  the 
victims,  with  a  channel  carrying  it  to  the 
edge  of  the  stone.  Close  by  it  is  a  large 
stone  basin,  into  wdiich  the  hearts  of  those 
sacrificed  were  thrown,  and  there  are  a 
number  of  heavy  stone  yokes  by  which 
the  head  of  the  captive  was  held  securely. 
On  this  stone  scores  of  thousands  of  lives 
have  been  sacrificed.  The  sacrifice  con- 
sisted of  the  most  horrible  butchery  by 
penetrating  the  side  of  the  victim  with  a 
stone  knife  and  cutting  out  the  heart,  after 
which  the  body  was  given  to  the  multitude, 
as  is  claimed,  to  gratify  their  cannibal 
appetites.  This  is  one  of  the  few  relics 
of  the  Museum  that  were  accidentally 
found    more    than    a   century    ago    when 

126 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

making  an  excavation  for  some  purpose 
near  the  cathedral,  where  the  Aztec  temj)le 
had  been  reared. 

The  calendar  stone  gives  unmistakable 
evidence  of  the  computation  of  time  by 
the  Aztecs,  and  if  all  its  varied  and  ex- 
quisitely carved  hieroglyphics  could  be  in- 
terpreted, it  would  tell  a  most  interesting 
story  of  the  methods  of  the  ancients  in 
determining  the  passing  of  the  seasons.  It 
is  one  of  the  largest  of  the  Aztec  relics, 
and  was  also  resurrected  from  its  Aztec 
tomb  near  the  cathedral. 

There  are  numerous  idols  of  the  Aztecs, 
some  of  the  most  hideous  and  others  of  the 
most  fantastic  conception  and  construction. 
One  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Aztec  art 
is  the  dominant  presence  of  the  serpent. 
The  head  or  form  of  the  serpent  is  found 
almost  everywhere.  Some  of  the  most  beau- 
tifully finished  works  of  stone  jiresent  per- 

126 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

fectlv  coiled  snakes,  and  one  of  them  dis- 
tinctly  preserves  the  early  theory  concern- 
ing the  rattlesnake,  as  it  has  fourteen 
formed  rattles  on  its  tail. 

That  thev  were  a  sincerely  relio;ious 
people  is  shown  by  every  monument  that 
remains  of  their  work.  Their  bloody 
butcheries  on  the  sacrificial  stone  were 
inspired  by  their  religious  faith.  It  was 
there  that  they  offered  their  sacrifices  to 
the  sun  and  the  other  gods  they  wor- 
shipped, and  they  imitated  the  sacrifices 
recorded  in  the  Old  Testament,  only  offer- 
ing human  lives  instead  of  the  lives  of 
animals. 

Those  who  may  assume  that  this  sacri- 
ficial stone  and  its  terribly  sanguinary 
history  fully  warranted  the  conquest  of 
Mexico  by  the  civilization  of  Spain,  need 
only  go  a  few  squares  from  these  relics  of 
barbarism  to  see  the  imposing  home  of  the 

127 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Inquisition  that  came  with  Spanish  mastery 
and  was  reared  as  one  of  the  attributes  of 
the  Christian  faith.  Here  the  Inquisition 
wrote  its  most  bloody  and  brutal  records. 
The  little  park  on  which  the  building 
fronts  is  finely  decorated  by  a  beautiful 
statue  of  the  Indian  woman  who  brought 
to  Priest  Hidalgo — the  father  of  Mexican 
independence — notice  that  he  had  been 
detected  and  would  be  murdered,  causing 
him  to  ring  his  bell  for  mass  in  his  church 
at  Dolores  and  lead  his  worshippers  from 
their  prayers  to  battle  for  freedom.  He 
was  the  first  martyr  to  the  freedom  of 
Mexico,  as  he  was  defeated  and  promptly 
executed.  There  is  now  no  statue  in  the 
republic  that  calls  out  more  patriotic  de- 
votion than  that  of  Hidalgo. 

Between  the  sacrificial  stone  of  the 
Aztecs,  with  its  bloody  record  of  murder 
in  the  name  of  religion,  and  the  equally 

128 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

murderous  record  of  the  Inquisition,  reared 
and  maintained  under  what  should  have 
been  a  vastly  better  civilization,  I  am  in- 
clined to  give  the  greater  extenuation  to 
the  Aztecs,  as  their  sacrifices  were  not 
wholly  voluntary. 

Among  the  interesting  exhibitions  in  the 
Museum  may  be  found  grouped  together 
the  magnificent  carriage  of  the  Empress 
Carlotta,  with  the  state  carriage  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  state  carriage  of  Presi- 
dent Juarez.  The  carriage  of  the  Em- 
press looks  as  bright  and  fresh  to-day  as 
when  the  queen  of  beauty  and  personal 
beneficence  swej)t  along  the  grand  cause- 
way to  Chapultepec.  Its  entire  surface  is 
heavily  gilded  with  pure  gold,  as  are  the 
wheels  and  every  other  part  of  it,  and  its 
elaborate  finishings  around  the  top  are  of 
heavily  mounted  silver.  It  is  quite  double 
the  size  of  the  ordinary  carriage,  and  is  cer- 

9  12!) 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

tainly  the  most  richly  decorated  and  costly 
equipage  on  the  continent.  The  state  car- 
riage of  Maximilian  is  of  exquisite  manu- 
facture, but  of  much  more  quiet  elegance, 
and  beside  it  the  state  carriage  of  Juarez 
stands  in  its  severe  simplicity,  to  teach  the 
difference  between  the  government  of  an 
emperor  and  the  government  of  the  people. 

The  history  of  poor  Carlotta,  as  she  is 
always  called,  even  in  Mexico,  presents  one 
of  the  most  pathetic  individual  histories  of 
any  country.  Here  remains  the  grand 
palace  of  Mexican  rulers,  including  her 
husband,  with  many  of  its  adornments 
of  her  own  conception,  and  here  is  her 
equipage  of  surpassing  grandeur  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  fall  from  the  throne  of 
an  empire  to  the  starless  midnight  of  an 
insane  asylum  for  a  period  of  more  than 
a  generation. 

One  of  the  most  unique  and  interesting 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

institutions  of  Mexico  is  the  national 
pawn-shop,  situated  opposite  the  great 
cathedral  and  near  the  Grand  Plaza.  It  is 
the  one  establishment  in  Mexico  where  you 
can  deal  with  the  absolute  assurance  that 
you  will  not  be  cheated.  It  was  instituted 
by  the  government  more  than  two  centuries 
ago.  While  the  individual  pawn-shops  of 
the  city  are  among  the  most  extortionate 
of  like  establishments  in  any  country,  the 
national  pawn-shop  is  conducted  solely  in 
the  interests  of  the  people.  Persons  in 
need  of  money  can  there  pawn  any  article 
and  receive  for  it  one-third  to  one-half  its 
commercial  value.  It  is  carefully  ap- 
praised, and  is  held  for  redemption  for  a 
period  of  eight  months  on  the  payment  of 
a  moderate  interest.  If  not  redeemed  at 
the  time  specified,  it  is  again  appraised  at 
from  twenty  to  tliirty  per  cent,  below  its 
intrinsic    value    and     the     price     marked 

131 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

on  it.  There  is  no  deviation  from  the 
appraised  vahie  in  the  sale,  but  articles 
which  remain  unsold  for  a  certain  period 
are  again  appraised  at  a  lower  price,  and 
this  is  continued  until  a  sale  is  effected. 
It  is  an  immense  establishment,  presenting 
an  almost  infinite  variety  of  the  best 
quality  of  pawned  goods,  all  of  which 
may  be  bought  at  a  much  lower  price  than 
their  commercial  value,  and  many  of  them 
as  low  as  fifty  per  cent.  Those  in  charge 
of  the  establishment  have  no  interest 
whatever  in  deceiving  or  cheating  the  pur- 
chaser, and  considering  the  tricks  of  trade 
in  Mexico,  where  you  are  generally  ex- 
pected to  believe  nothing  from  anybody  in 
a  business  way,  the  national  pawn-shop 
stands  out  like  a  clean  deuce  in  a  dirty 
deck. 

Of  course,  the  patrons  of  this  establish- 
ment are  chiefly  persons  who  have  articles 

132 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

of  considerable  value  to  pawn,  as  the  pawn- 
shops of  the  average  Mexican  are  of  the 
lowest  order,  and  goods  pawned  by  that 
class  are  not  expected  to  be  redeemed. 

From  the  national  pawn-shop  it  is  but  a 
little  distance  to  the  very  lowest  round  of 
the  ladder  in  the  trade  of  the  criminal 
classes.  The  thieves'  market,  a  little  more 
than  a  square  from  the  national  pawn- 
shop and  quite  as  close  to  the  Grand  Plaza, 
presents  the  criminal  classes  in  all  the 
squalor  of  their  poverty  and  degradation. 
Like  all  other  institutions,  from  the  bull- 
ring and  tlie  gambling-house  to  the  brothel, 
the  thieves'  market  is  legalized,  and  the 
uniformed  official  inspector  may  be  seen  at 
every  turn  of  this  narrow  and  sinuous  com- 
bination of  the  basest  strata  of  commerce. 
There  are  hundreds  of  persons  employed 
in  the  sale  of  the  endless  variety  of  cheap 
things  which  are  gathered   for  commerce, 

133 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

and  they  are  all  of  the  lowest  type,  from 
a  rusty  spike,  broken  iron  and  brass,  to 
game  roosters,  often  enlivening  the  horrible 
spectacle  with  their  shrillest  crows.  It  is 
the  worst  combination  of  dirt  and  squalor, 
alike  in  narrow  passages,  in  articles  for 
sale,  and  in  men  and  women  engaged  as 
sellers,  to  be  found  in  any  business  channel 
in  the  city.  Here  it  answers  the  purposes 
of  a  "fence  shop"  in  our  Northern  cities, 
and  the  goods  offered  are  either  bought  at 
low  rates  from  thieves  who  have  stolen 
them  or  are  job  lots  from  the  clearing  sales 
of  low  pawn-shops. 

In  passing  through  the  very  narrow  and 
constantly  winding  paths  of  the  thieves' 
market,  it  is  quite  necessary  to  avoid  even 
the  touch  of  the  persons  engaged  there, 
and  to  keep  a  very  close  eye  upon  your 
jewelry  and  money.  The  people  operating 
there  are  not  authorized  by  law  to  purchase 

134 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

stolen  goods  with  impunity,  but  all  know 
that  they  do  it,  and  no  inquiry  is  made.  I 
saw  there  brass  wheel-handles  of  Pullman 
car  brakes  corresponding  precisely  with 
those  which  had  been  stolen  from  our  own 
car.  Such  an  institution  could  not  exist  in 
Philadelphia,  but  Mexico  could  not  get 
along  without  it. 

There  is  very  much  to  attract  the  in- 
terest of  the  intelligent  tourist  in  Mexico. 
In  addition  to  its  grand  scenery,  its  great 
temples,  its  beautiful  and  instructive  monu- 
ments, its  vast  sources  of  study  to  those 
who  are  interested  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race,  this  country  presents  greater 
advantages  for  a  particular  class  of  Ameri- 
cans than  any  other  in  the  world.  I  know 
of  no  ])]'dce  where  a  fortune  could  be  so 
easily  attained  as  in  Mexico,  but  there  are 
two  absolute  prerequisites :  First,  the  man 
who  seeks  fortune  in   Mexico  must  have 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

fortune  to  aid  him  in  his  work.  It  is  no 
place  for  the  mechanic  or  the  working- 
man,  or  any  other  class  of  people  who  are 
without  means,  unless  they  are  connected 
with  organizations  or  business  interests 
which  promise  advancement.  Second,  it 
is  absolutely  necessary  that  persons  seeking 
fortune  here  should  very  thoroughly  know 
just  where  and  when  to  make  investments. 
In  no  other  country  could  there  be  greater 
likelihood  of  men  seeking  fortune  being 
deceived  and  misled  into  bankruj^ty.  The 
few  who  have  had  means  and  succeeded  in 
investing  them  wisely  are  acquiring  wealth 
with  great  rajDidity,  not  only  in  the  aban- 
doned mines  of  the  republic,  but  in  pos- 
sessing and  handling  the  vast  forests  of 
most  valuable  timber  and  in  developing 
the  tropical  portion  of  the  country. 

Ex-Governor  Shej)herd,  of  Washington, 
came  here  to  repair  his  broken  fortune  with 

136 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

friends  to  aid  liim.  He  is  buried  in  the 
mountains  of  Mexico,  six  days'  drive  over 
almost  impassable  roads  to  any  railroad ; 
but  he  had  been  successful.  Mr.  West,  of 
journalistic  distinction  in  Chicago  some 
years  ago,  is  here  devoting  his  time  to  the 
development  of  an  old  mine  in  the  moun- 
tains, that  is  reached  from  the  railroad  by 
ninety  miles'  travel  over  a  single  trail,  that 
can  be  travelled  only  on  horseback.  His 
large  machinery  was  carried  to  the  mine 
piecemeal  by  Indians,  but  he  now  has  for- 
tune assured.  I  met  also  Dr.  Cockrell, 
son  of  Senator  Cockrell,  of  Missouri,  who 
has  been  here  nine  years,  and  has  achieved 
great  success  in  the  growth  of  sugar,  rub- 
ber, coffee,  corn,  tobacco,  etc.,  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  republic.  He  has 
become  thoroughly  Mexicanized,  and  is 
realizing  very  large  profits  from  all  his 
crops. 

137 


PRESIDENT    DIAZ— THE 

MOUNTAINS  AND  THEIR 

UNTOLD    STORY 

City  of  Mexico,  February  12,  1901. 
I  HAVE  remained  in  the  Mexican  capital 
several  days  beyond  my  original  plans 
with  the  hope  of  meeting  President  Diaz. 
He  has  been  away  for  more  than  a  fort- 
night, and  it  was  announced  on  his  depart- 
ure that  he  was  not  seriously  ill,  but  that 
he  needed  rest,  and  he  was  confidently 
expected  back  to  resume  his  official  duties 
by  the  middle  of  last  week.  From  reliable 
information  received,  I  am  apprehensive 
that  President  Diaz  is  dangerously  ill,  and 
that  the  Mexican  press  and  all  the  officials 
connected  with  the  government  have  been 
studiously  suppressing  the  truth  as  to 
his  condition.     Announcements  have  been 

138 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

made  in  the  papers  telling  how  he  enjoyed 
the  hunt,  when  in  point  of  fact  I  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  he  has  not 
been  able  to  hunt  at  all,  and  that  his 
absence  from  the  capital  is  likely  to  be 
prolonged  for  some  weeks. 

In  private  and  well-informed  circles  here 
there  is  very  grave  anxiety  as  to  Presi- 
dent Diaz's  condition  of  health.  While  it 
is  reasonably  certain  that  his  death  would 
not  result  in  revolutionary  outbreaks,  it  is 
confessed  on  every  hand  that  the  present 
most  gratifying  conditions  and  prospects 
for  the  advancement  of  the  material  in- 
terests of  Mexico  would  be  very  seriously 
blighted  by  the  death  of  the  President. 
Other  men  have  made  greater  sacrifices 
for  the  interests  of  the  Mexican  people, 
as  its  history  is  replete  with  heroism  in 
both  church  and  state  and  in  field  and 
forum,  but   no   one    man    has   ever    ruled 

189 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

over  Mexico  so  long  and  so  acceptably  as 
Porfirio  Diaz. 

He  first  became  President  in  the  revolu- 
tionary period  of  1876.  He  entered  the 
City  of  Mexico  at  the  head  of  the  army 
and  was  proclaimed  President,  in  which 
office  he  remained  until  1880.  He  was  not 
elected  to  succeed  himself,  but  was  again 
chosen  in  1884,  and  he  has  been  re-elected 
in  each  recurring  Presidential  year,  having 
been  unanimously  chosen  to  his  present 
term  in  1900.  Should  he  live  out  this 
term  he  will  have  a  record  of  twenty  years 
as  President  of  Mexico. 

He  was  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  skil- 
ful of  all  the  Mexican  generals,  but  he  has 
proved  to  the  people  of  Mexico  that  the 
victories  of  peace  may  be  more  renowned 
than  those  of  war.  He  understands  the 
Mexican  people ;  he  well  appreciates  their 
needs,    and    his    administration    has   been 

140 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

steadily  progressive  in  the  line  of  the  best 
civilization.  Kailroads  now  traverse  almost 
every  section  of  the  republic,  and  witli  the 
single  exception  of  the  Hne  between  Mexico 
and  Vera  Cruz  they  have  all  been  practi- 
cally of  his  creation.  He  is  a  broad,  self- 
poised,  aggressive,  and  patriotic  statesman, 
and  he  has  hastened  the  advancement  of 
his  nation  to  an  extent  in  which  but  few 
others,  and  probably  no  others,  would 
have  been  sustained  by  the  public. 

For  Mexico  to  lose  President  Diaz  at 
this  time  would  be  not  only  a  national 
but  an  international  calamity,  and  it  would 
be  felt  by  the  Mexican  people  generally  as 
a  profound  bereavement.  Many  in  other 
countries  have  assumed  that  he  has  been 
re-elected  President  from  time  to  time  be- 
cause of  his  complete  military,  political, 
and  ])usiness  organizations ;  but,  while  it  is 
true  that  President  Diaz  gives  large  sub- 

141 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

sidies  from  the  public  treasury  to  all  the 
prominent  newspapers  of  the  country,  and 
while  he  has  an  army  whose  soldiers  police 
every  railroad  station  and  every  section  of 
the  republic  in  which  a  revolution  might 
be  inspired,  and  while  he  is  heartily  sup- 
ported by  the  great  railroad  and  corporate 
interests  of  Mexico,  it  is  none  the  less  true 
that  he  has  the  hearty  support  of  the  public 
almost  without  exception,  and  his  suc- 
cessive elections  as  President  have  not 
depended  upon  any  other  influences  than 
the  sincere  and  hearty  trust  and  affection 
of  the  Mexican  people. 

I  profoundly  regret  my  inability  to  meet 
President  Diaz,  as  I  had  hoped  to  learn 
much  from  him  of  the  progress  and  grow- 
ing prosperity  of  this  country,  that  is  so 
full  of  promise  under  his  intelligent  gov- 
ernment, but  I  very  much  fear  that  his 
days   of    active    usefulness    are   well-nigh 

142 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

numbered.  I  sincerely  hope  that  I  am 
mistaken ;  for  in  this,  unlike  most  other 
nations  of  the  world,  there  is  not  one  man 
who  could  entirely  fill  the  place  of  the 
Mexican  ruler. 

I  took  a  journey  to  Orizaba,  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  distant  in  the  tropics, 
to  view  the  interesting  agricultural  develop- 
ment of  the  plains  of  Apam,  and  of  the 
beautiful  plateau  between  Apam  and  the 
mountains  at  Esperanda.  Going  out  of 
the  capital,  the  Mexican  Valley  soon  pre- 
sents almost  one  unbroken  field  of  the 
maguey  plant.  It  must  be  the  most  profit- 
able growth  of  the  husbandman,  or  the 
fertile  soil  of  the  valley  would  not  be  so 
exclusively  devoted  to  it.  Here  and  there 
a  green  wheat-field  would  be  seen,  and  a 
larger  proportion  devoted  to  corn,  but  the 
one  crop  of  the  Mexican  Valley  and  Apam 
plains  is  the  maguey,  or  pul(|ue  plant.     It 

143 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

is  cultivated  with  great  care,  and  in  many 
instances  I  saw  it  growing  vigorously  up  to 
the  very  summit  of  the  cliffs  which  dot 
the  valley,  some  of  them  being  so  pre- 
cipitous that  it  would  be  impossible  to  till 
the  soil  with  teams. 

The  whole  country,  from  the  capital  to 
where  the  descent  of  the  mountains  begins 
at  Esperanda,  is  held  in  immense  planta- 
tions, ranging  from  twenty  thousand  to  one 
hundred  thousand  acres  each.  The  haci- 
endas, or  plantation  buildings,  are  seen  here 
and  there,  often  many  miles  apart,  situated 
on  some  of  the  undulations  which  break 
the  plain,  and  all  of  them  present  visible 
traces  of  barbaric  grandeur.  The  home  of 
the  owner  is  generally  constructed  in  lavish 
style,  with  its  grounds  walled  in,  as  is  com- 
mon throughout  the  entire  country,  and 
with  all  conveniences  for  the  comfort  of  the 
employers  and  every  evidence  of  discomfort 

144 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

and    disregard    of    the    interests    of    the 
laborer. 

Around  the  hacienda  is  usually  found  a 
number  of  small  huts,  most  of  them  vary- 
ing from  eight  to  ten  feet  in  width,  and  no 
greater  in  height.  These  are  built  of  adobe 
or  inferior  lumber,  and  are  the  homes  of 
the  men  who  till  the  soil.  They  are  chiefly 
Indians,  who  render  very  poor  service  and 
get  much  poorer  pay.  In  several  instances 
I  saw  forty  persons  working  in  a  field, 
threshing  wheat  and  stacking  the  straw  or 
plowing  or  planting,  and  in  no  instance 
would  one-quarter  of  the  number  be  em- 
ployed in  the  North  to  perform  the  same 
work. 

The  wages  of  farm  laborers  range  from 
twenty-five  cents  to  seventy-five  cents  per 
day,  Mexican  money,  worth  just  one-half 
its  face  value  in  gold ;  but  the  soil  is 
wonderfully    rich,    and    even   the    poorest 

10  145 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

farmiDg  produces  bountiful  crops.  The 
chasm  between  the  old  slave-owners  and 
their  slaves  in  our  Southern  States  was  not 
half  so  wide  as  the  chasm  between  the 
owner  of  the  soil  in  Mexico  and  the  igno- 
rant and  impoverished  labor  employed. 

It  is  this  class  that  is  next  to  an  insuper- 
able obstacle  to  liberal  progress  in  Mexico. 
It  is  not  the  fault  of  the  government,  nor 
is  it  the  fault  of  a  very  large  element  of 
intelligent  and  j^rogressive  j^eople  who  are 
engaged  here  in  all  the  channels  of  com- 
merce, industry,  and  trade,  but  it  is  simply 
a  problem  that  under  present  conditions 
absolutely  defies  solution.  The  conditions 
steadily  grow  better,  but  the  growth  must 
be  slow,  and  thus  will  long  continue  a 
double  misfortune  to  both  classes. 

There  is  nowhere  on  the  continent  a 
more  beautiful,  fruitful,  and  picturesque 
region  than  the  country  from  the  capital  to 

146 


o 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

Orizaba.  The  railroad  starts  seven  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  forty-eight  feet 
above  the  sea  at  Mexico,  and  these  vast 
plains  steadily  rise  from  the  capital  city 
until  the  summit  is  reached  at  Saltepec, 
where  the  altitude  of  eight  thousand  two 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  feet  is  attained. 
While  traversing  this  attractive  region, 
where  you  see  seed-time  and  harvest  almost 
continuously  hand  in  hand,  you  are  sur- 
rounded by  the  most  interesting  mountain 
scenery  that  can  be  found  anywhere  on  the 
continent.  Poj^ocatapetl  and  Iztaccihuatl 
are  constantly  in  view  until  the  snowy  pin- 
nacle of  the  peak  of  Orizaba  appears  in 
the  east,  towering  eighteen  thousand  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  above  the  sea, 
and  wearing  the  highest  crown  of  any 
mountain  in  North  America.  It  is  the 
grandest  of  the  many  great  mountain-cliffs, 
most  of  which  were  once  volcanic.     It  has 

147 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


been  the  finger-board  for  millions  of  people 
of  the  past,  who  left  no  history,  and  is  to- 
day the  first  thing  looked  for  by  the  mari- 
ner in  the  Gulf  as  he  sails  for  Vera  Cruz, 
one  hundred  miles  distant. 

At  Esperanda  the  railroad  begins  the  de- 
scent of  the  wonderful  chain  of  mountains 
that  spans  the  Gulf  side  of  Mexico.  It  is 
the  grandest  feat  of  engineering  I  have 
ever  seen,  far  surpassing  anything  in  either 
the  Rocky  Mountains  or  the  Sierras.  It  is 
thirty  miles  to  Orizaba,  which  was  founded 
by  the  Aztecs  long  before  the  Spanish 
were  known  in  Mexico.  Orizaba  is  sur- 
rounded by  immense  mountain-cliffs  on 
every  side,  many  of  them  only  a  very  few 
miles  distant,  while  the  peak  of  Orizaba 
towers  over  all.  A  descent  of  nearly 
four  thousand  feet  is  made  in  the  short 
journey  between  Esperanda  and  Orizaba, 
and  most  of  it  is  made  in  two-thirds  of  the 

148 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

distance.  The  line  of  the  road  is  presented 
on  a  little  map,  giving  the  schedule  of  the 
trains,  and  it  is  simply  a  continuation  of 
the  wildest  and  most  picturesque  curves 
ever  fashioned  by  an  engineer. 

From  the  time  the  mountain  descent  be- 
gins, the  road  is  almost  wholly  made  up  of 
tunnels,  every  one  of  which  presents  a 
sharp  curve,  and  horseshoe  bends,  which 
follow  each  other  at  times  in  such  quick 
succession  that  the  line  presents  double 
and  triple  horseshoes,  without  one  hun- 
dred feet  of  straight  line  intervening. 
Many  portions  of  it  present  the  most  pre- 
cipitous chasms  close  beside  the  road-bed, 
and  when  half-way  down  the  steep  decline, 
a  beautiful  Indian  village  is  seen  far  be- 
low in  a  little  valley,  which  seems  to  be 
cultivated  to  an  unusual  degree  of  perfec- 
tion. Its  fields  are  green,  and  even  up  the 
steep  declivities  of  the  hills  wherever  there 

149 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

is  soil  to  invite  the  rude  plows  the  usually 
bleak  and  inhospitable  face  of  the  moun- 
tains is  relieved  by  fields  which  give 
promise  of  bountiful  harvests. 

Even  the  foot-hills  at  the  base  of  the 
peak  of  Orizaba  are  relieved  with  green 
patches,  apparently  half-way  up  to  the 
snow-line,  and  from  the  time  the  pretty 
Indian  valley  opens  up  its  charming  view 
all  the  way  down  to  Orizaba  there  is  a  line 
of  Indian  farms  on  the  fertile  soil.  At 
some  places  the  cultivated  valley  widens 
out  for  two  or  three  miles  and  again  nar- 
rows to  the  width  of  an  ordinarv  field,  but 
it  presents  an  unbroken  picture  of  the 
most  comfortable  homes  I  have  seen  in 
rural  Mexico. 

This  remarkable  road  was  built  by  Eng- 
lish capitalists,  who  came  into  possession, 
early  in  the  '60s,  of  the  eastern  end  of  the 
line,  which  had  been  built  out  some  fifteen 

150 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

miles  from  Vera  Cruz  by  private  capital, 
and  later  extended  to  the  mountains  by 
Marshal  Bazaine  when  he  occupied  Mex- 
ico in  1862  and  made  Vera  Cruz  his  base 
of  supplies.  It  was  completed  and  opened 
on  the  first  day  of  January,  1873,  and  was 
the  first  railroad  in  the  Mexican  republic. 

It  is  laid  with  heavy  steel  rails,  on  steel 
ties,  and  has  steel  telegraph  poles  along  its 
entire  line.  The  engines  used  are  enor- 
mous in  weight,  and  present  two  complete 
locomotives  in  one  machine  to  insure  safety 
for  the  train  if  one  locomotive  should  be- 
come disabled.  It  is  evidently  managed 
with  great  care,  but  has  never  made  liberal 
returns  to  its  investors. 

It  traverses  the  same  mountain  passes 
through  which  Cortez  led  his  little  Spanish 
army  nearly  four  centuries  ago,  and  through 
which  Scott  led  his  army  from  Vera  Cruz 
to  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  through  which 


161 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

the  French  army  marched  to  overthrow 
the  republic  and  establish  an  empire  for 
Maximilian. 

In  no  other  journey  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  can  so  much  of  fertility  of  soil 
and  grandeur  of  scenery  be  presented  as 
in  the  journey  from  the  Mexican  capital  to 
Orizaba.  There  the  climate  is  tropical, 
although  the  picturesque  little  city  is 
nearly  four  thousand  feet  above  the  Gulf. 
It  is  one  of  the  health-resorts  of  Mexico, 
and  tourists  from  every  climate  are  careful 
to  embrace  it  in  their  itinerary.  In  the 
two  days  I  spent  there  I  met  travellers 
from  most  of  the  principal  cities  of  the 
States,  and  many  from  England  and 
France. 

Foreign  capital  has  chosen  Orizaba  as  the 
best  place  for  investment  in  manufacturing, 
and  within  a  few  miles  of  the  city  there 
are  four  immense  cotton-mills,  one  of  which 

152 


TO   THE    PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

is  the  largest  ever  built  at  one  time  in  the 
world.  The  mountain  streams  furnish 
magnificent  water-jiower,  and  the  cheap 
labor  of  Mexico  enables  these  mills  to  com- 
pete successfully  with  like  manufactories 
in  every  other  section.  The  cotton  comes 
entirely  from  Texas,  and  the  products  of 
the  mills  are  exhausted  in  the  home  mar- 
kets. They  furnish  every  variety  of  cot- 
ton fabrics,  including  prints,  and  I  assume 
that  it  is  but  the  beginning  of  manufac- 
tories throughout  the  republic. 

The  country  about  Orizaba  is  rich  in  in- 
teresting studies  for  the  tourist.  Here  are 
the  finest  coffee  plantations,  and  all  tlie 
fruits  of  the  tropics  abound.  You  are 
awakened  in  the  morning  by  the  loud, 
beautiful  notes  of  the  bugler,  tempered  by 
the  softer  tones  of  the  nightingale  and  the 
varied  songs  of  the  mocking-bird.  The 
evenings  are  cool,  but  the  Northern  tourist 

158 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

is   glad   to    imitate   the  natives  and  take 
shelter  from  the  heat  of  the  day. 

The  surroundings  of  the  city  are  strangely 
picturesque,  as  some  of  the  cliffs  extend 
their  foot-hills  even  into  the  city  limits,  and 
looking  in  any  direction  there  is  nothing 
presented  to  the  view  but  a  circle  of  the 
most  confused  and  rugged  mountains. 

I  have  now  been  for  over  two  weeks 
traversing  the  mountains  and  valleys  of 
our  own  country  and  of  Mexico.  At  no 
time  after  leaving  Denver — along  the  en- 
tire journey  of  nearly  one  thousand  miles 
across  the  Rockies  and  Sierras  to  the  plains 
of  the  Pacific  slope,  then  dowai  through 
California  and  our  Territories  to  the  Rio 
Grande,  followed  by  a  journey  of  nearly 
fifteen  hundred*  miles  in  Mexico — can  the 
tourist  turn  in  any  direction  without  seeing 
the  majestic  cliffs,  often  broken  in  wild 
confusion,  varying  in  height  from  the  spurs 

154 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   JVIEXICO 

which  descend  into  the  valleys  to  the  im- 
mense pyramids  of  rugged  rock  which  are 
crowned  in  perpetual  snow. 

The  observant  traveller  never  tires  of 
the  varied  views  j^resented  by  these  moun- 
tains, as  even  among  those  which  raise  their 
cliffs  highest  towards  heaven  are  gener- 
ally found  the  most  beautiful  and  fruitful 
valleys.  This  vast  mountain  chain,  which 
is  almost  unbroken  from  the  colossal  St. 
Elias  in  Alaska  down  through  our  own 
country  and  Mexico  to  the  western  coast 
of  South  America,  presents  not  only  the 
most  imposing  and  impressive  panorama 
of  majestic  grandeur,  but  it  has  sealed  in 
its  hidden  archives,  written  there  countless 
centuries  ago,  the  history  of  the  world  and 
its  peoples  that  we  are  just  beginning  to 
study. 

Our  scientists  have  made  little  progress, 
but   they   are   mastering   the   alphabet   of 

155 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

this  great  study,  and  the  future  scientists 
will  here  find  boundless  fields  in  which 
to  unravel  tlie  unwritten  history  of  ages 
and  beings  of  which  the  world  has  little 
dreamed.  It  may  be  generations,  it  may 
be  centuries,  before  they  master  the  strange 
stories  these  mountains  and  their  plains 
will  tell.  Enough  has  been  learned  to 
know  that  the  prehistoric  Western  World 
is  one  vast  sepulchre  of  creations  and 
civilizations  which  are  now  among  the 
unknown,  and  every  chain  of  this  vast 
net-work  of  mountains  must  sooner  or 
later  furnish  its  tribute  to  the  now  shad- 
owed history  of  the  past. 

The  few  lessons  we  have  gathered  from 
the  long-hidden  stores  are  absolutely  un- 
erring. They  tell  of  different  ages,  con- 
ditions, and  climates  as  surely  as  the 
astronomer  tells  of  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly    bodies    in    their    orbits.      We 

156 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

know  tliat  in  the  frozen  North  there  was 
once  a  tropical  climate,  as  the  flowers  and 
varied  growths  of  the  tropics  are  there 
preserved  in  petrifications  whose  testimony 
is  indisputable. 

We  are  only  beginning  to  understand 
that  on  plains  where  these  mountains  now 
lift  tlieir  corrugated  crowns,  the  mastodon 
and  colossal  animated  nature  abounded, 
and  now  and  then  irresistible  evidences 
are  found  of  races  of  human  giants  of 
whom  even  tradition  tells  no  story.  To-day 
our  most  accomplished  and  cultured  scien- 
tists can  only  guess  the  conditions  before 
the  violent  throes  of  the  earth  cast  uj)  in 
convulsive  confusion  these  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  miles  of  mountains,  which  now 
would  seem  to  have  been  co-existent  with 
past  eternity,  and  so  mighty  in  their 
foundations  and  structure  as  to  promise 
co-existence  with  future  eternity. 

157 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 


We  are  steadily,  but  necessarily  very 
slowly,  advancing  in  this  almost  end- 
less study  of  the  unrecorded  history  of 
the  past;  but  the  time  must  come,  even 
though  centuries  may  be  required  to  con- 
summate it,  when  the  hidden  records  of 
these  mountains  and  valleys  will  be  mas- 
tered, and  the  now  unintelligible  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  monoliths  and  ruins  of 
unknown  peoples  will  be  brought  within 
the  range  of  human  understanding. 

It  is  the  great  lesson  of  the  future, 
and  profoundly  as  it  has  impressed  me  in 
crossing  the  mountains  of  my  own  country 
for  nearly  one  thousand  miles,  and  remem- 
bering the  recent  discoveries  of  colossal 
animals  whose  bones  have  been  slumbering 
for  countless  ages,  I  have  been  even  more 
impressed  in  this  tropical  climate  by  the 
unmastered  lessons  which  are  here  on  every 
side,  in  the  ruins  of  civilizations  which  are 

158 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

without  historic  or  even  traditional  record. 
Here  are  ruins  of  great  cities,  displaying 
wonderful  advancement,  with  walls  em- 
bellished with  frescoing  whose  beautiful 
and  enduring  colors  are  among  the  lost 
arts  even  in  this  intelligent  age,  and  here 
are  pyramids  which  in  conception  and  pur- 
pose rival  the  pyramids  of  Egypt's  sandy 
plains. 

We  know  of  the  Aztecs  here  as  we  know 
of  the  aborigines  in  the  United  States. 
There  they  were  simply  the  dusky  sons  of 
the  forest,  without  art  or  temple,  although 
they  at  times  reared  the  rudest  altars. 
Here  the  Indian,  as  far  back  as  history 
and  plausible  tradition  go,  was  the  equal  in 
advancement  in  many  of  the  arts  of  any 
of  the  peoples  of  their  time.  But  long 
before  them  the  evidences  are  undoubted 
of  the  existence  of  peoples  whose  art  is 
exhibited  only  in  their  unmastered  sculp- 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

ture  and  hieroglyphics,  and  of  whose 
civilization  the  world  is  to-day  entirely 
ignorant. 

Sometime  these  mountains,  valleys,  and 
ruins  must  have  their  secrets  unlocked ; 
their  treasures,  which  have  slept  in  hidden 
archives  for  untold  centuries,  must  teach 
the  more  enlightened  civilizations  of  the 
future  in  what  large  measure  of  darkness 
our  present  boasted  age  of  advancement 
has  been  groping  its  way.  They  will  tell 
their  story  some  time,  and  then  the  world 
will  understand  its  own  history. 

I  turn  homeward  from  this  beautiful 
panorama  of  mountain  and  plain  with  sin- 
cere regret.  The  new  lessons  which  are 
presented  for  study  in  every  day  of  sight- 
seeing are  of  unvarying  interest,  and  there 
are  many  invitations  to  the  most  delightful 
enjoyment. 

I   have   devoted   every   evening   to  the 

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TO   THE   PACIFIC    AND   MEXICO 

beautiful  drive  from  the  centre  of  the 
Mexican  capital  to  the  grand  clifi'  and 
palace  of  Chapultepec.  It  is  delightfully 
shaded  by  the  black  ash,  mingled  at  times 
with  the  sycamore,  and  towering  over  all 
is  seen  the  faultless  symmetry  of  the 
eucalyptus,  growing  with  the  precision  of 
a  line  of  battle,  with  the  beautiful  statues, 
telling  of  every  age  and  people  known  in 
the  history  or  traditions  of  Mexico,  adding 
to  the  grandeur  of  the  view.  When  I 
first  reached  Nature's  rocky  battlements 
which  embellish  the  front  of  Chapultepec 
the  setting  sun  had  just  passed  behind  the 
cliffs  of  the  distant  mountains,  presenting 
a  picture  through  the  fleecy  clouds  that  the 
brush  of  a  Titian  could  not  reproduce. 
Turning  towards  the  east,  a  golden  circle  of 
the  sun  threw  its  halo  around  the  eternal 
snow  of  Popocatepetl's  crown,  and  away 
beyond  it  was  the  moon,  with  her  horns 
11  if-'i 


TO   THE   PACIFIC   AND   MEXICO 

rounded  out  to  fulness,  clad  in  silvered 
mellowness.  It  was  a  picture  of  sublimest 
beauty,  as  the  sinking  god  of  day  and  the 
queen  of  night  proclaimed  that  another 
day  had  made  its  journey  to  the  boundless 
eternity  of  the  past. 


THE    END 


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